Energy Deregulation Still Misunderstood

Recently, I have attended several conferences on Energy Deregulation in Connecticut and the United States. The state wide meeting I attended was with 500 people at the Marriott hotel in Stamford. The meeting was presided over by Kerry Breitbart President and CEO of the United Companies. Kerry was a world leader in energy trading through a company he founded called Amorex. He now is the champion behind the fastest growing energy deregulation company in Connecticut and has secured a $75M line of credit from Wells Fargo bank to bring that message to our city state and town consumers.

The statistics on energy deregulation in CT are however surprising. The facts show that only 20% of homeowners in the state are off the UI and CL&P program, businesses fare better with 40% of them being deregulated. However, the numbers tell that many people are still questioning the sincerity of this program, currently there are over 15 companies who claim to offer lower energy rates. Some have argued that UI seems to be going against their own interests. However this is a fallacy, actually UI and CL&P tell their consumers through inserts in your bills, on their websites and in public meetings that anyone who wishes to save money on their energy bills needs to pick another company besides them.

This is hard to believe, that the electric companies would be sending their customers to their competitors, but the reality is that this recommendation does not effect the overall profitability of their company. According to representatives at North American Power and Gas, the energy companies were deregulated many years ago. They were told to sell off their power plants and purchase their energy on the open market.

Connecticut traditionally has its bill bundled, combining the cost of delivery, with the cost of generation. After deregulation passed there was no profit incentive for the energy companies to produce energy. Most of the profit the energy companies make is through the delivery side of the energy bill, those costs pay the utility company for creating a customer bill, responding to emergencies and reading your energy meters.

None of this is effected when a person changes to an alternate energy provider. Effectively the only thing that changes is the price consumers pay for energy. This confusion is what is causing many people not to change over. Some people feel that if they change their service provider they will not get emergency service that they no longer will be able to speak with their electric company representative like they used to, or their electrician will not get help if he needs it... all of which is completely false.

Rarely do I recommend what people should do but if any of you out there reading this today have not changed your energy provider I urge you to call me at (203) 247-4357 to have your bill lowered. It takes about 5 minutes of your time, requires no contract to be signed and will save you about one of your bills a year in money. Its completely worth it to sign up with the right company.

For more information click the North America Power Advertisement to the right of this blog in the Ad Bar, there you will find a video just click the play button to learn more.