As reported by Liz Kay last week, BGE's default price for electricity generation and transmission will drop to an annual, blended rate of 10.6 cents per kilowatt-hour starting June 1. The actual charge on your bill will be around 11.8 cents for June through September. Then it'll drop close to the 10-cent mark for October through May 2011.
This'll save a typical Baltimore Gas & Electric customer about $160 a year compared with costs for the 12 months that end this May, BGE estimates. But independent suppliers are offering to sell electricity to BGE customers for even less, although navigating the offers takes some work. I'll tell you what I think is the best move, but take my advice with a ton of salt. I'm locked in on a three-year deal with Washington Gas Energy Services for 10.8 cents. I saved money in this cycle but now I'm missing out on deals that have fallen into the 9-cent range. Locking in at that price for such a long time was the wrong move. I may look into paying WGES's early-termination fee and making it up on savings from a cheaper deal.
Bottom line: Wholesale prices are still in the pits, relative to where they've been. It's possible that even cheaper deals will be available to BGE customers in the fall. WGES is offering to renew current customers whose contracts expire in June for 9.6 cents for two years or three. This is a very good deal, although it doesn't seem to be available to new customers on the WGES Web site. (An intermediary called Electric Advisors says it will hook new customers up with WGES's package at 9.7 cents for a year or 9.6 cents for two or three years.)
But if I were starting from scratch and rolling the dice a little I'd sign up for the new offer from Dominion Retail. It's 9.9 cents from now until the end of 2010. And unlike with other offers, there's no early-termination charge. You'll escape paying BGE's high standard price for June through September (11.8 cents). Then you'll be able to shop around again in the fall or at the end of the year and hope for even lower prices.