Electric rates go up!

[darnold1]

In Ohio it was stated in the news that the Electric Utility was going to increase by 70 per cent. We just experienced an increase in natural gas to heat our homes. That went went up just about double. Now the Electric company wants to get a piece of the action. My question is. If electric rates go up 70 per cent would it be wise to change over to gas for an Electric dryer or leave it as it is and suck up the increased expense? Only a handful of states in the Northeast are affected by the increase in electric!

[Greg Fretwell]

In Florida it was gas that took the huge increase. Elrectric is higher too but I don't think it would pay to switch to gas. Part of the problem is the lack of establised gas infrastructure. Even if the product itself was cheaper, paying for the new pipe kills the price advantage.

[Jae Williams]

The Ohio "rate freeze" is over. PUCO said we had to have a choice in a service provider and the citizens voted for it. Then, nearly nil persons switched to "another company", but millions of bucks were spent changing over--and now Ohio is paying for it.

Southwesten Ohio hasn't experienced much of an increase--yet. But it isn't likely we'll see a 70% jump. Duke Energy has been able to control influxes in prices, so far.

And then there's that thing about the power grid problem a couple of years ago. Someone (involved) has to ante-up for that fiasco. 1st Energy was in the middle of that, and guess who foots the bill...

[Joey D'Adamo]

Originally Posted by darnold1

In Ohio it was stated in the news that the Electric Utility was going to increase by 70 per cent. We just experienced an increase in natural gas to heat our homes. That went went up just about double. Now the Electric company wants to get a piece of the action. My question is. If electric rates go up 70 per cent would it be wise to change over to gas for an Electric dryer or leave it as it is and suck up the increased expense? Only a handful of states in the Northeast are affected by the increase in electric!

Any idea how the power is generated in your state? Perhaps the power is generated via natural gas or even oil. That might explain the correlation between the rates.

On the other hand it could just be the open market doing its thing.