Enmax fixed vs. floating rates...

[Hemi-Cuda]

Ugh, I just saw that our 6¢/kWh fixed plan ends in August, having our electricity bill double is gonna suck. Does it make sense to lock into the fixed 12.8¢/kWh plan, or could prices come down sometime soon?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Ugh, I just saw that our 6¢/kWh fixed plan ends in August, having our electricity bill double is gonna suck. Does it make sense to lock into the fixed 12.8¢/kWh plan, or could prices come down sometime soon?

You'd be surprised how little of the difference the price per kWH actually makes on the bill at the end of the day.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Ugh, I just saw that our 6¢/kWh fixed plan ends in August, having our electricity bill double is gonna suck. Does it make sense to lock into the fixed 12.8¢/kWh plan, or could prices come down sometime soon?

Check out Blake Shaffer for all your "should I stay or should I go" electricity questions

https://twitter.com/user/status/1646538896841506817

[TorqueDog]

Yeah, I renewed our fixed plan for electricity, floating has never really made sense to me for power.

[Jimmy Stang]

I have recommended that my in-laws lock in at the gross rate of 0.1299 for electricity, as they were previously just on floating. When/if it goes lower, I’ll get them to lock in again. Since Enmax let’s you change it up every 30 days, the only limitation is my ability to check rates for them. I have set a monthly reminder, and I’ll keep an eye on this thread.

[DoubleK]

It will be a couple years to pay off the deferred charges from the RRO cap. Fixed electricity is the only way to go until then.

[Trojan97]

Newb question - I noticed the fixed rate offer has now dropped from 12.79c to 12.29c. Was going to renew to access this lower rate even tho it's basically a negligible impact on my bill since i'm in only in a townhouse but every bit helps these days. Noticed that if i try to renew my electricity online through easymax it tries to renew my floating gas at 30c/gj more as well.

Question is whether I can renew just my electricity and leave the gas at what it currently is? It's not going to be a big difference regardless but figured it's worth understanding regardless. Wondering if I can do this by calling maybe.

[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.

[Johnny Makarov]

I just locked into easymax about 2 months ago for electicity at the fixed rate but left the natural gas rate at the floating rate. Last month I think it was only at $2.15/GJ. Most of my friends are locked in at $5gj.

[timun]

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.

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.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by timun

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.

Well when I first looked into locking in last March, the locking rates were higher than today. Whereas with Electricity I was able to lock in at 8 cents per kwH at the time. It's like variable vs fixed Mortgage...hard to predict when the right time is to move. As best as I can tell it looks like the price of Natural Gas is forecast to be pretty stable for the next 12 months. But one unexpected geopolitical event can upset that in an instant.

Although it does look like I might have some options to stay Natural Gas floating rate and get away from Direct Energy which is what I'd like to do...sadly live in St.Albert so my life sucks being this close to Edmonton.

[CaptainYooh]

Could anyone suggest a link to good historic charts of fixed and variable electricity rates in Alberta?

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Could anyone suggest a link to good historic charts of fixed and variable electricity rates in Alberta?

It's on the UCA helps website.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

It's on the UCA helps website.

Thanks. But they only go 13 months back for some reason.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Thanks. But they only go 13 months back for some reason.

You have to export the data and do it yourself in Excel.

Also you need to type in the date in the start date field manually.

[CaptainYooh]

Again, thanks. I tried exporting regulated, fixed and variable rates from ENMAX for a 3-yr period. However; it only exports regulated rates. Nothing comes out for fixed and variable. Weird. I might be specifying export criteria incorrectly. Will play with it some more.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Again, thanks. I tried exporting regulated, fixed and variable rates from ENMAX for a 3-yr period. However; it only exports regulated rates. Nothing comes out for fixed and variable. Weird. I might be specifying export criteria incorrectly. Will play with it some more.

I'll poke around when I find some time.

I'm trying to teach myself Python so will add this dataset to the list of inputs.

What are you trying to look at specifically?

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I'll poke around when I find some time.

I'm trying to teach myself Python so will add this dataset to the list of inputs.

What are you trying to look at specifically?

I wanted to plot fixed vs variable rate charts for 10 years to see if there are any visible seasonality correlations.

[MoneyGuy]

I’ve never paid much attention to energy prices but my daughter has discussed this with me and has sent me a referral code. I’m considering it. I’ll have to scan the 500 posts in this thread later.

[DoubleK]

I see Cascade started generating today.

Won't be long before the pool price starts to see some downward pressure.