any experience with either frontier utilities, varsity energy or payless power? it's renewal time for me and those look like my two lowest cost options.

In almost any other category, I'd normally advise against just finding the cheapest possible option because you often get what you pay for, but in the Texas electricity market it literally doesn't matter.

Even if the company you pick goes out of business (this happens every summer), they cannot cut off your power, and your contract will just get picked up by another provider who will either honor your current price or give you a window to switch to someone else with no penalty.

All that to say, as long as you just want to set up autopay and forget about it, there is no risk to you as a consumer to just pick the cheapest rate, no matter how shady the company sounds. So, any of the ones you listed should be fine. Just make sure you read the EFL before signing up to make sure they aren't doing something wonky with your plan (minimum usage credits, tiered pricing, etc).

We dropped energy ogre a couple years ago and went w/ thigbe and have been pleased. My parents and a customer switched to thigbe last year and initially were skeptical since they had been w/ their electric provider for 10-20yrs but are very pleased w/ the pricing and service.

Thanks for the feedback. I use the power to choose rate grinder. Similar to energy ogre but just a once a year $10 charge. I usually get GEXA every other year but they won't ever renew the new customers only plan. Mainly I was just looking for any customer service reasons to avoid any of the 3 mentioned. (Don't think I've ever had reason to contact my energy biller ever.)

Unfortunately it depends on what you want. A 12 month plan that you set and forget? You'll pay 12+ cents. If you want to try to save money the cheaper are the 3 month plans around 8.5-9 cents currently, but they are only 3 month so it's a constant game of renewing and hoping rates stay under 10 cents. Rates will go higher in the summer and other high usage times of the year. And I've found the 3 month contracts require you to call them, then they try to talk you out of it and lock you into a 15 cent 60 month rate and once you argue and stick with the 3 month cheap rate they will then send you to India and try to sell you a whole home water filtration system. It's such a freaking joke.

Bravo!

I dropped Ogre when they just renewed me for the same plan 2x and didn't respond to my email questions. I signed up with Green Mountain who got me on a plan with Ironhorse for .08. There is still the Atmos charge on top of that however.

This was a 5yr plan but I have never had to pay a cancellation fee when switching so I figured if we find something lower then I'll deal with it then. I did ask them to reshop for me a few months ago and nothing was cheaper yet.

I've been using Orge for 10 years now and remain pleased.

Had Varsity for almost a year now, no issues. I believe they required autopay. They were the lowest 12 month plan I could find, at a time when none were offering anything super cheap.

I used Energy Ogre for years until they continued to switch my plan, it never aligned with my lease, and the last plan I had with them tripled my bill. Husband and I have been using Gatby. It's free, way more straight-forward, and they only have fixed rates. When shopping noticed a lot of companies show a low rate but hide in bill credits for minimum usage we weren't hitting. They lay everything out point blank, and it actually feels like they are on your side.

Biggest game changer is their Group Rates. You join for free, and it gives you access to an exclusive rate. They basically can negotiate rates with providers based on how many people join the group. Kinda like bulk discount for electricity. I'd check them out https://www.gatby.com/group-rate/

I'm moving to McKinney and this house has a co-op electric company. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

BigPete3281 said:

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I'm moving to McKinney and this house has a co-op electric company. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

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it means you don't have to shop for electricity .

co-ops are not for profit so presumably you get better rates. I typically have seen Co-serv be better than market rates of the for profit companies and grayson-collin electric seems to be at market or higher every time I've checked.

One thing missing in comparison though is the dividend/capital credits that could come back to a member of the co-op for any excess revenue which reduces your cumulative costs. I am not in a co-op so I don't know what those credit amounts have looked like.

And you are an owner so presumably you can keep the BoD in check similar to HOA

I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

I have CoServ for my office condo. FWIW, base rate has been around 0.138 per kWh, there is a $25 monthly customer charge, plus taxes and fees, but also a small monthly use-based credit ranging from 7 to 20 dollars. The annual capital credit isn't much as I recall, usually less than $100. Last year it was $55. No idea how any of this compares to residential service.
Never lost power during the extreme cold, but we're within a mile of a hospital and a fire station, assuming those factor in.

rme said:

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I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

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Aren't the delivery companies like Oncor or TNMP still serving power there? Does the coop have any control over blackouts when Oncor is still delivering power?

Just Tired said:

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Thanks for the feedback. I use the power to choose rate grinder. Similar to energy ogre but just a once a year $10 charge. I usually get GEXA every other year but they won't ever renew the new customers only plan. Mainly I was just looking for any customer service reasons to avoid any of the 3 mentioned. (Don't think I've ever had reason to contact my energy biller ever.)

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I use rate grinder as well

I'm not the owner, but I might buy it unless I find something I like better over the next year. They had it for sale, then kinda changed their mind and I scooped it up first and signed their lease. We get to decide if we like "country living" so that's nice.

Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

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I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

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Aren't the delivery companies like Oncor or TNMP still serving power there? Does the coop have any control over blackouts when Oncor is still delivering power?

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CoServ is a distribution utility and owns distribution (low voltage) lines that deliver power to end users. CoServ purchases power from the market (could include supply from specific power plants) and it is delivered to CoServ's system via transmission lines and substations owned by Brazos Electric. My understanding is CoServ controls how power is delivered over its distribution system, meaning CoServ could rotate outages by distribution circuits or groups of circuits in a reasonable manner.

For example, my cousin lives in Melissa and they had outages based on a process (an hour every x hours) and everyone shared the pain (not a socialist, but I like this approach with electricity). I live in Plano and some neighborhoods were out for days (not necessarily tied to equipment outages) while others weren't out at all (yes, some were on "hospital circuits").

My apologies for the derail. I would rather be in a well-run co-op than deal with choosing suppliers and chasing pennies per kWh.

rme said:

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Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

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I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

---

Aren't the delivery companies like Oncor or TNMP still serving power there? Does the coop have any control over blackouts when Oncor is still delivering power?

---

CoServ is a distribution utility and owns distribution (low voltage) lines that deliver power to end users. CoServ purchases power from the market (could include supply from specific power plants) and it is delivered to CoServ's system via transmission lines and substations owned by Brazos Electric. My understanding is CoServ controls how power is delivered over its distribution system, meaning CoServ could rotate outages by distribution circuits or groups of circuits in a reasonable manner.

For example, my cousin lives in Melissa and they had outages based on a process (an hour every x hours) and everyone shared the pain (not a socialist, but I like this approach with electricity). I live in Plano and some neighborhoods were out for days (not necessarily tied to equipment outages) while others weren't out at all (yes, some were on "hospital circuits").

My apologies for the derail. I would rather be in a well-run co-op than deal with choosing suppliers and chasing pennies per kWh.

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That's the case when you get farther out. For the areas of McKinney that get their electricity in the CoServ coop (rather than the retail electric providers), they are still within the Oncor TDU. So, Oncor is still controlling the distribution of the electricity purchased by CoServ.

Kind of a derail, but I think it's important to understand that just because you're buying electricity in a coop, it doesn't mean that the coop owns your transmission.

Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

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Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

---

I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

---

Aren't the delivery companies like Oncor or TNMP still serving power there? Does the coop have any control over blackouts when Oncor is still delivering power?

---

CoServ is a distribution utility and owns distribution (low voltage) lines that deliver power to end users. CoServ purchases power from the market (could include supply from specific power plants) and it is delivered to CoServ's system via transmission lines and substations owned by Brazos Electric. My understanding is CoServ controls how power is delivered over its distribution system, meaning CoServ could rotate outages by distribution circuits or groups of circuits in a reasonable manner.

For example, my cousin lives in Melissa and they had outages based on a process (an hour every x hours) and everyone shared the pain (not a socialist, but I like this approach with electricity). I live in Plano and some neighborhoods were out for days (not necessarily tied to equipment outages) while others weren't out at all (yes, some were on "hospital circuits").

My apologies for the derail. I would rather be in a well-run co-op than deal with choosing suppliers and chasing pennies per kWh.

---

That's the case when you get farther out. For the areas of McKinney that get their electricity in the CoServ coop (rather than the retail electric providers), they are still within the Oncor TDU. So, Oncor is still controlling the distribution of the electricity purchased by CoServ.

Kind of a derail, but I think it's important to understand that just because you're buying electricity in a coop, it doesn't mean that the coop owns your transmission.

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So, in some cases the coop is just a REP?

rme said:

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Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

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Prince_Ahmed said:

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rme said:

---

I believe co-ops did a better job managing rolling blackouts. Or maybe they just actually managed them.

---

Aren't the delivery companies like Oncor or TNMP still serving power there? Does the coop have any control over blackouts when Oncor is still delivering power?

---

CoServ is a distribution utility and owns distribution (low voltage) lines that deliver power to end users. CoServ purchases power from the market (could include supply from specific power plants) and it is delivered to CoServ's system via transmission lines and substations owned by Brazos Electric. My understanding is CoServ controls how power is delivered over its distribution system, meaning CoServ could rotate outages by distribution circuits or groups of circuits in a reasonable manner.

For example, my cousin lives in Melissa and they had outages based on a process (an hour every x hours) and everyone shared the pain (not a socialist, but I like this approach with electricity). I live in Plano and some neighborhoods were out for days (not necessarily tied to equipment outages) while others weren't out at all (yes, some were on "hospital circuits").

My apologies for the derail. I would rather be in a well-run co-op than deal with choosing suppliers and chasing pennies per kWh.

---

That's the case when you get farther out. For the areas of McKinney that get their electricity in the CoServ coop (rather than the retail electric providers), they are still within the Oncor TDU. So, Oncor is still controlling the distribution of the electricity purchased by CoServ.

Kind of a derail, but I think it's important to understand that just because you're buying electricity in a coop, it doesn't mean that the coop owns your transmission.

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So, in some cases the coop is just a REP?

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Acting in the capacity of a REP, yes. But we'd call them a REP (retail electric provider) OR an electric cooperative. The distribution may or may not be owned by the coop vs served by a TDU such as Oncor or TNMP.

Interesting. Thanks, learned something new.