Quick Take:
Gas:
Direct Energy REGULATED Services (DERS). This is the default so there is no retailer rate.
Electricity:
- If you are in Calgary, ATCO or Fortis wires territory, 6.9 cents/kWh for seniors and 7.0 cents/kWh for everyone else at www.enrgpower.ca.
- If you are outside the above three areas, go to www.adagioenergy.net to learn about 6.95 cents/kWh for seniors and 7.10 cents/kWh for everyone else.
- The Enmax Choose Free Option
Natural Gas
The best options for gas and electricity are becoming clearer this month for residential users – even with a new option from Enmax. For gas, I would not get into a fixed rate, as all the offers we’ve seen for residential are very poor. None have been much better than $5.79/GJ, and we’ve had a lot of our clients get around $4. So for gas, we recommend staying on the Direct Energy Regulated Service (DERS). Remember that this is a “Regulated Service”. If you aren’t with these guys now, you will automatically go there if you terminate your current gas contract. Make sure there are no termination fees! There may also be a small enrollment fee to get on with DERS.
Electricity
As for electricity, with all the ups and downs that we’ve seen over the last few months and even years, we like the idea of getting into a fixed rate. The rates available right now aren’t too bad. The best rates can be found in the UTILITYnet group of Boutique retailers. To figure out which retailer can service your home, go to www.utilitynet.net. One great thing about these fixed contracts is that they can be cancelled without penalty at any time. Below I’ve highlighted the best of the bunch.
E. NRG Power has the lowest offerings and I see they serve Calgary, ATCO and Fortis territories, but not Edmonton. Their senior’s (65+) rate is 6.90 cents/kWh with a rate of 7.00 cents/kWh for those under 65. For everyone else, Adagio Energy has the best rates with a senior’s (65+) rate of 6.95 cents per kWh, and a regular rate of 7.10 cents per kWh available to all other residential users.
We also looked at Enmax’s new Choose Free option. The deal with this is that you get 4 years of electricity at 8.49 cents per kWh and one year for 0 cents per kWh. As a strict average, that leads to a rate of about 6.80 cents per kWh, so that is the best rate available, however we see two things that hold us from moving ahead with this rate. First, you must also sign up for gas with Enmax and their gas rates are not attractive enough for us to make the move. Second, you are locked in for five years, whereas the other options described can be terminated with short notice and without fees.
Just to help put things into perspective, all that we are talking about here is the commodity rates and costs, not the regulated and other delivery charges. An average house might use around 9000 kWh and 100 GJ over a year.
For those of you, who are on an old EasyMax contract at 8.0 cents per kWh, a move to Adagio Energy would save around $81 a year, plus another $14 a year on admin; so you would save about $95 annually. EasyMax’s bundle option where they give you $100 back every year isn’t so grand with their current $0.99/GJ transaction fee for gas. For anyone moving retailers, feel free to tell them mitchell@solution105.com sent you.
For those who are on Bow Valley Power’s 7.15 cents per kWh rate, like me, it is probably not worth the hassle to change to Adagio Energy for the $4.50 per year.
Check back with me in two months, to get the latest.
Large Scale Energy Users
And for those of you who are not residential users, and maybe a bit bigger, give us a call. We have seen pricing for larger users in the mid 5 cent per kWh range, which we think is excellent.