18,000 Commercial Accounts Lost Their Protected Tariffed Rate In May 2010! Many ComEd Customers Remain Unaware of the Change.

Accounts in the 100-400kW demand class were declared "competitive" by Illinois Commerce Commission ("ICC"). Those accounts not under contract with an Alternative Retail Electric Supplier ("ARES") defaulted to hourly pricing in May 2010. Hourly pricing is a precarious and expensive way to purchase electric power. While hourly customers may see modest price drops on their May and June ComEd bills, many will be in for an expensive surprise should historic weather patterns repeat for extreme hot weather days in July and August.

The change in delivery service means there is no “safe harbor” for businesses that have been reluctant to contract for energy supply on their own. The expired tariffed rate allowed customers to avoid the pitfalls of contracting for energy supply by paying a modest premium to purchase electric power from ComEd. You should not be surprised. ComEd issued a press release all about this back in October of 2007. [Click here to view a copy]

• What should you do? Contact The Power Group, LLC. We will help you obtain a fair contract at an excellent price. The Power Group works only with the leading suppliers. There are cheaper alternatives to purchase electric power than ComEd’s Real-Time hourly rates. The Power Group can be reached at (312) 725-3009 or visit www.PowerGroupUSA.com.

• Is your business at risk? The only way to be sure is by checking your account status with ComEd. In order to do so you will need your ComEd account number and one of the meter numbers listed on a bill. Click here [-] and we will show you how to check. Typically, accounts averaging over $2,000 a month are at risk. However, using a dollar average is not exact because account classification is based on peak demand rather than overall usage. If your account’s demand is less than 100kWh we have an excellent guaranteed savings contract available. There is literally no good reason to purchase electric power directly from ComEd.

• Is hourly pricing really that bad? If your business has real time metering installed, and it can curtail usage immediately or deploy alternative generation quickly, then Real-Time pricing might be OK. However, there are better alternatives such as Day Ahead pricing. In addition to increased volatility, ComEd’s Real-Time pricing is more expensive because the regional transmission authority, PJM, imposes punitive operating reserve charges to encourage customers to schedule Day-Ahead.

The reality for most businesses is that even if they are able to monitor real time pricing they cannot effectively curtail their electric power use and still have their business function normally. Click here for a graph of historic pricing from 2008[-]. For the average business, a secure low priced, fixed rate electric power supply contract is the most sensible. With a fair termed fixed price contract, there will not be any surprises.