Shopping Electricty

Shopping for Electricity

New Hampshire allows you to select your power provider. The community's utility company will charge you to deliver that power, keep the infrastructure up, and provide one bill, no matter who you select for your electricity. Generally the bill is about half delivery and half power, but that can vary as prices go up and down. Generally, if you can get 20% off the price of your power, you will save about 10% on your entire bill. The State of NH provides a good overview here energy.nh.gov/consumers/choosing-energy-supplier 

I think of three different supplies for power: 

1. the traditional supplier, the utility company, Unitil in our case, see unitil.com/electric-gas-service/pricing-rates/rates  They provide a 6 month fixed rate, but you have to sign up for that the month before the six months starts, and variable monthly rates which you can get into any time. At any time you can switch cost free to a different provider.

2. the community aggregator, which for our community is managed by Colonial Power, see colonialpowergroupnh.com/hampton/  Currently, you can get into and out of this rate as you wish at no cost. 

3. or another third party supplier, including ones I have used in the past: SmartEnergy, ENH, Town Sq Power, and Ambit Energy. Ambit is the only one I will not use again. For the current suppliers and contracts see: energy.nh.gov/ENGYApps/CEPS/ResidentialCompare.aspx?choice=Unitil  They provide contracts for a specific term at a certain rate. Always pay attention to the terms and conditions of the contract (outlined on the website): some might have cancellation fees, etc. Very rarely, these suppliers will have a rate better than presented on this website, a little less rarely they will have a promotion. Usually the webpage well represents what they offer when you phone them. Be very careful not to allow your contract to lapse without having a new contract or a new supplier lined up. The third party providers rates upon termination of a contract are often very, very expensive. I think of them as gotcha rates. 

Contact the supplier, I suggest calling (ask for an email confirmation), to start getting their rate/contract, and they then set up the situation with Unitil. This process "must" complete before the billing cycle begins. At the start of the billing cycle the rate is set. Due to this, I suggest you call shortly after your billing cycle completes to start a new rate at the beginning of the next billing cycle. All electric services in the building started about 6 days into the month, but the billing cycle can vary with weekends & holidays, so maybe the 5, 6, 7 or 8th. If I want to change my rate I call the supplier of that new rate on the 10 or 11th or so, in order to get that rate starting about a month later on the new billing cycle. Ideally not necessary, but I got into the habit of a week after calling the supplier, calling Until to confirm they will be using the new rate on the next billing cycle. This is an unusual request, so sometimes you might have to ask for a "senior representative".