Power
I was checking out the various Reliant Energy electricity plans, and I’m puzzled. They have the OneRate Secure and the OneRate Flex plans. Secure tries to even out your cash flows over the year to smooth the gaps, and Flex is a simple constant forward rate.
I’ve had too much finance, because looking at this really busts my chops. The Secure plan, which clearly involves some degree of forecasting or at the least averaging, is cheaper by 0.5 cents (14.9 cents/kWh).
I would gather that the Secure plan gives the Big Evil Corporation a better chance to jigger around with averages and massage things to their liking. They also get to assess a $100 penalty if you don’t finish the first year (probably so people don’t sign up in Fall and cancel in Spring costlessly).
The Flex plan makes it look like you are taking the fixed price payer position in an electricity swap, which seems like a reasonable thing for which to pay extra.
I suppose when you’re dealing with these razor-thin marginal spreads between Flex and Secure, simply the present-value benefit of holding your Fall electricity savings until the next summer would probably erase the benefit of the lower nominal 14.9 cent/kWh rate of the higher cash flows in the off-months.
Crooks.