Savings Available for United Illuminating Customers
Connecticut electricity choice is allowing customers of The United Illuminating Company to significantly lower their electric bills. The choice laws allow customers to replace the generation service rate on their United Illuminating electric bill for a price offered by an alternative electricity supplier. The difference between the alternative supplier’s offer and UI’s generation service rate equates to the savings the customer can see on their monthly UI electric bill. UI’s generation service rate is a default price for customers who choose not to shop for lower prices.
The United Illuminating company delivers power to roughly 325,000 customers in southwest Connecticut and is the state’s second largest electricity utility. Since 2010, the percentage of customers located in the UI service area who have chosen to purchase their power from an alternative Connecticut electricity supplier has jumped between a low of 42% and high of 52.5%. The switch percentage correlates to the spread between the UI default price and the lowest competitive offers during that time, with larger spreads resulting in an increase in shopping activity. This trend has been consistent across electricity choice markets throughout the United States as customer’s are looking for savings to entice them to participate in energy shopping.
Several rate options exist below from licensed electricity suppliers who are offering prices below the United Illuminating default, or price to compare, rate. United Illuminating updates their default price for electricity twice a year in January and July. Unfortunately customers usually do not find out what that price will be until a few days prior to the change. The ability to lock in a fixed rate and hedge against future price increases in seen my some as even more important that the initial savings opportunities that exist. United Illuminating raised their electricity price for generation service by 17.66% in January 2016 from the December 2015 price.
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