Questions to Ask Providers
To make the best apples-to-apples comparison of providers and offers you should ask each provider the following list of questions. We suggest you print a copy of these questions for each of the providers to compare their offers.
Download a printer-friendly PDF of Questions to Ask Providers.
To help you compare offers based on price contact your current electric provider and ask for your plan's total electric rate based on a 1,000 kWh usage (not including taxes or non-recurring fees).
Questions to ask each provider:
- What will I pay per "kilowatt hour" (kWh) of electricity based on 1,000 kWh of average monthly usage?
- Does this rate include everything, including the electricity cost, the transmission and distribution charges, fuel charges, if any, as well as the monthly customer charge or other recurring fees?
- Is this offer a fixed rate offer, a variable rate offer, or an indexed offer? If it is a variable or indexed rate offer, how can it change, and how do I find out when, and by how much, the rate will change?
- Is there a contract? If so, how long is it for?
- Is a deposit required? If so, how much?
- What are my payment options?
- What happens when my contract period expires?
- What if I miss a payment?
- Is there a penalty if I break the contract?
- If I generate excess renewable electricity – does your company have a buy-back plan? What are the terms?
Note: Check Retail Electric Provider (REP) complaint statistics by selecting the REP Complaint Statistics. You can see the total number and type of informal complaints each REP received for the last six months. Keep in mind that large companies will naturally have a greater total number of complaints because of their size.
