Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
For Natural Gas when a fixed rate is say $5.99 would you still have all the other tertiary charges on your bill or would you shed some of those?
Last month to buy 3.07 GJ at an average cost of $2.55 per GJ it cost me $78.97.
Fixed and Variable Delivery Charges of about $33.50. $5 in rate riders, an admin fee of $11.19, plus a municipal franchise fee of $7.56. Carbon tax of $10.21 and GST. So that's about $60 if you exclude the carbon tax. My uneducated assumption is that I'm paying those costs regardless if I'm on fixed or variable.
Year to date I have my house as having used 57.67GJ at an average cost of $3.94 per GJ. Although that will rise come December when my usage will go up to 15 and I expect the rate to rise too. Last year to use around 81GJ it averaged $5.27 per GJ. So what am I missing by not locking in gas prices? Seems like most people have.
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The only things you can shop around for are the energy and admin charges. These should appear on your bill under "energy charges". Everything else—fixed and variable delivery charges, rate riders, municipal franchise fee, carbon tax—is exactly the same no matter who you go with, and whether you pay a fixed energy rate or floating energy rate.
So you ask, "what am I missing by not locking in prices?" What you're missing is that the floating gas rate has been remarkably steady this year, with no big swings. This time last year it was about $5.60/GJ. Last spring it was over $7.
For Enmax customers, if you go with the floating rate you also pay an additional $1.23/GJ "transaction fee" on top of your floating energy rate. Right now the fixed price on offer is $4.89/GJ, so in effect if the floating rate is above $3.76/GJ you're paying more overall. Right now it's working out in your favour, so lucky you. Last year you probably didn't even realize you were paying more than other people.
I for one am locked in at $4.09/GJ. As such, if I was on a floating rate of $2.55/GJ +$1.23/GJ transaction fee, I'd be saving 31¢/GJ, or... a buck-fifty on my $87 gas bill. Oh well.