Pascoag Utility District’s Customer Service Representatives have been receiving more questions about competitive suppliers, such as American Power, who have been advertising on TV lately. These Suppliers have seen an increase in the Standard Offer service of National Grid to over 8 cents/kWh, and have been offering customers an alternative supply of energy at about 7.5 cents/kWh. As the questions are becoming more frequent we thought we’d address some of the issues.
For this year, although our Standard Offer Service (SOS) rate of 7.0 cents/kWh is higher than our rate from last year, we are still below what the Competitive Suppliers like American Power have been able to offer.
If a customer wanted to switch to a Competitive Supplier, they would still be charged all of the other customer charges, including Transmission Service and Transition Service that would get billed to the customer by PUD. The only piece of the bill they would be purchasing from a Competitive Supplier would be the supply piece that we call Standard Offer Service. They would still be a customer of Pascoag Utility District’s, connected to our wires, and taking for and paying PUD for all of our distribution services.
Additionally PUD’s power supply is almost 40% derived from green, renewable energy that is good for the environment. We strive to purchase power contracts that increase our renewable energy portion of our portfolio, whenever possible.
The Competitive Suppliers may also only lock in the rate for a period of time, at which point the rate would change, either up or down, but the risk is that it would increase.
We encourage all of our customers to do research before entering into any agreement with another supplier. As always, we are here to answer any questions you may have. Please call the office at 401-568-6222 for any additional questions.