You just call and talk directly with your retail provider. The key thing to understand is that your retail provider handles the billing and customer support for your energy services, and the wires company handles the delivery of those services, maintains the delivery system, and handles any outages that may occur. If you have customer service or payment related issues with your bill, you’ll call the company that sends you your bill. If you have an outage, you’ll generally call your “Wire and Poles” company – also known as your Utility Company.
Archives: FAQs
All of the delivery is handled by the local wires company, so give them a call. Your energy provider should give you details on how to contact the wires company on the bills they send you in case you need to report an outage or want to contact them directly for any other reason.
The provider you choose has nothing to do with the delivery of your electricity. Your electricity is delivered by the still-regulated local wires company (your Utility), ensuring for you the same safety and reliability regardless of which provider you choose. Your chosen Provider buys or reserves energy in bulk and hopes to turn a profit by taking on the overhead of attracting and maintaining customers. Your utility is the one delivering your power. Your provider is only responsible for billing you for your usage.
Unfortunately, no. Several states have opened the doors to open competition in the energy markets serving their residents, but many have not. And to make matters even more confusing, some cities within deregulated states aren’t deregulated at all. To find out if you have the power to choose your electricity and/or natural gas provider, simply enter your zip code and we’ll show you your options.
Energy Deregulation allows for open competition in the energy markets, and it forces those competing for your business to “raise the bar” of services and incentives offered in order to gain and retain your business. Gone are the days where we’re all forced into paying for a necessity without any power on how we’re treated in return. You now have the power to choose which retail energy provider will receive your hard earned money, and that’s awesome.
ComparePower is a free consumer service. Energy companies we show or review pay us a fee when we help them enroll customers, but you’ll never pay anything, and the pricing you see on our site is the same as you can get from the providers directly.
Fixed pricing allows you to lock in the rate you pay for electricity with a contract for a given time period, usually 3–60 months (depending on your selection). Variable pricing, also known as month-to-month pricing, may fluctuate with the energy markets. There is no contract in a variable plan. Your pricing could go up, stay the same, or even go lower, all of which is out of your control and is determined by the energy company offering the variable plan.
Renewable content is the percentage of your electricity that is generated from renewable resources, such as wind, solar, or hydro electric dams. It’s your option, and if it’s important to you that you lower your carbon footprint, be sure that your filter those plans that help you accomplish that goal.
Yep – we’d love to help you out. See how to contact us here.
ComparePower is unlike any other energy comparison experience ever created. Built in Texas, by Texans, for Texans. We have made every attempt to give you an unmatched shopping experience where available plans are filtered and sorted only by those options that you choose and control. If you find there are too many plans to choose from, use the filters on the left of the plans page to narrow your search and target in on those plans that meet your needs, or contact us using the chat feature.