Electric Companies gouging you?

Didn't know where to put this so mods can move it wherever if necessary.

There is alot of discussion on the boards about green energy, corporate corruption and conspiracy/greed. Well I say; What if there was a simple way to end all of that with one swift kick in the proverbial "Genitalia"? A way to make big electric companies hurt while at the same time forcing them to rethink their pricing strategy and perhaps even implement new ways to generate electricty.

The idea came to me in a very simple form. While playing a browser game, I was manipulating the in game market to make it more favorable for myself. I made billions of in game currency. Much the same way investors destroy our economy in real life today. I would buy a resource for really cheap. Then buy the market way back up and sell all my products off for much more than I bought them.

Now, we all know that if you generate more electricity than you use, then the electric company pays you for feeding back into the grid. But, you don't wanna spend a bunch of money on green energy equipment do you? I don't. So, I whipped out a calculator and did some math.

Let's say you purchase electricity from company X at 8 cents per kWH. Company Z sells theirs for 11 cents per kWH. So, we order service from both company X AND company Z. (yes, you can have more than one provider). Say you live in a one bedroom apartment at 600 square feet. You average 5000 kWH useage per year. At 8 cents per kWH, you spend roughly 4000 a year on electricity. At 11 cents, you spend about 5500 per year. Now...for just a minute, think about this.

There is a 1500 dollar gap in those prices. If you were to use ONLY that 1500 bucks worth from company X, and feed the remaining into company Z, then you break even. Now, I know this cannot be done on month to month services. So, I propose looking into average pricing for specific areas. You know, those low income plans that give you the same bill each month depending on the average useage for the area.

There it is, that's my idea. As I am writing this, it is becoming more evident that it might be a flawed idea but it seems like there are variables that need closer looking into. Anyone have any input?

13 kilowatt hours a day??



I think that is a little excessive, unless you have a whole bunch of TV's and a obsession with doing laundry...

reply to post by boncho


haha. I guess you could use any average you wanted but the pricing stays the same.

I like your idea but as soon as we start doing this provider X will buy provider Z.
Do you want to stop the electric companies from gouging? Use more alternative energies. You don't have to go solely alternate. Enough people do this and they will change their strategy and be forced to look into their pricing.

Not here. We have 1for electricity and gas company. Period. And pay 2 separate providers for water and sewage.
And i live in one of the largest cities i believe. So unless i have money to put solar panels on a house i do not own, i pay what they say.

Side note, we have no krogers, albertsons, super s. We are stuck with heb or walmart. We have 2 small chain grocers whose prices are insane.

reply to post by TheLieWeLive


This may be true but, if even if each company starts buying each other out there will still be market competition from some other company. Eventually there would have to be either a monopoly or a reconsideration as to pricing. Provided we stay on it though.

I am on something called buget billing. My actual budget amout is way more than my usage. According to my math my budget shoul be $68. They tried put me on a budget of $130. We finally compromised on $85. They have also ha 3 increases in 3 years. The electric company even admits to being a for profit business. They are gouging us an ripping us off an getting away with it!

reply to post by dreamseeker


then I say get a second provider that is more expensive and see if there is a way to feed the cheaper power into the more expensive company's lines.

I work in the industry. Read both contracts, the one for 8 cent power and the one for 11 cent power. They wont let both exist at the same time.