About National Energy Shopping Day

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National Energy Shopping Day encourages consumers and businesses in deregulated states to check their energy contracts and shop for a fixed-rate energy supplier. Annually on the first Monday of Summer.

Energy Supply Shopping 101

Most people cannot choose which company delivers their electricity or gas to their homes or businesses, and utilities are essentially monopolies.

However, on that gas and electric bill, you're paying three different entities, at the minimum: the service provider (your electric or gas company); the government (taxes and fees); and the supplier, the actual gas or electricity you use. You can't do anything about the service provider (except go off the grid). The only way to change anything about the taxes is to lobby your government. You can do something about the supply, though; that is where Energy Shopping Day comes in.

Gas and electricity are commodities. That means they are traded on the commodities market daily, and the actual price fluctuates daily. Most businesses of any size, if they're in one of the 37 states with energy deregulation, tend to apply fixed-rate contracts to their gas and electric supply to protect against price volatility. It is like signing a lease for rent or a fixed-rate mortgage. You know what you'll pay for a set period, and even if the landlord raises everyone else's rent, your rent doesn't go up until your lease ends.

For example, after the 2008 economic crisis, electric and natural gas supply prices increased nearly 100% over the next three years. By 2014, they were at all-time highs. Companies and residents locked in their fixed rates with suppliers didn't experience the wild price increases, and they paid whatever they had agreed to pay on their 12-60 month contracts.

What about businesses that signed fixed-rate contracts at the height of the market in 2014 and 2015? The market tanked in 2016 and 2017 again. If a company signed up with a broker rather than an individual supplier, they're usually covered. Reputable brokers watch the market and re-negotiate with all their suppliers when the market drops dramatically for an extended period. They then redo their clients at lower rates, choosing from whichever supplier has the best rate for that client's usage. Brokers aren't locked into a specific supplier. The business or residence is protected against large fluctuations in the market while given a "get out clause" if everything goes south.

Over three to five years, the Canadian government and US government reporting agencies and several news organizations have shown that companies opting for fixed-rate energy contracts pay less over the full term. There may be a month, quarter, or even a year in that contract that they pay a little more than the variable rate. However, over a long time, choosing a supplier not only increases your accuracy at budgeting (you know what your usage was last year, so you can accurately calculate total cost this year now that you know what the energy will cost) but it also protects you from the unknown: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, political instability in energy supplying nations, extended cold weather, pandemics and anything else that might affect supply and demand that is beyond your control.

What's the caveat? If you're not working with a broker (brokers prevent this from happening), you must keep a close eye on when your contract expires and renew before then. People and businesses that sign up for "introductory offers" or fail to renew their contracts before expiration will start to see their rates skyrocket once out of contract. They return to variable rates, whatever the supplier wants to charge. Going back to the lease versus month-to-month rent, on a lease, your rent cannot go up. Once the lease expires, the landlord can raise your rent monthly if you haven't signed a new one. It's the same principle with energy supply contracts.