Georgia Power Offers "Nights and Weekends - Fuel" -- But don't sign up yet!

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Published on 04-11-2010 04:35 PM

3 Comments

I recently got a letter in the mail letting me know that I was eligible to sign up for an enhanced Georgia Power plan. Instead of the Nights and Weekends plan that I'm currently on, I can switch to "Nights and Weekends - Fuel". You may have read my previous article about the standard Nights and Weekends plan, but if not you can check it out by clicking here.

What the Nights and Weekends - Fuel does is it basically is a "double down" on the Time of Use (TOU) program that Nights and Weekends already is.

With Nights and Weekends, you save money in the "off-peak" but spend more during the "on-peak", which is Monday through Friday, 2PM-7PM, June through September. Off peak is around 4 cents per kwh and on peak is around 18 cents per kwh. But what they don't tell you is that fuel surcharge is flat, despite what time you use the power. The fuel surcharge is variable, but recently has been around 4 cents per kwh. So if you think about it, instead of being 4 cents vs. 18 cents, Nights and weekends is actually around 8 cents vs. 22 cents plus the standard taxes.

But if you add the Nights and Weekends - Fuel option, the 4 cent fuel surcharge will become variable as well. Probably somewhere less than 4 in the off-peak and above 4 on-peak.

But wait!!! Georgia Power doesn't have full control of the fuel surcharge. And the powers that be have not set the variable rate yet! So if you also got this letter, don't respond yet!!! You're basically agreeing to a plan that you know nothing about. It could be a great deal or it could be a huge rip-off. What if it is 3.5 cents off-peak and 18 cents on-peak. Probably not a good deal...

I'm not saying that this is a scam...Just saying it's better to wait for the facts before blindly signing up for a new program. Georgia Power promised to give me a call as soon as they get the exact rates. I'll respond to this article as soon as I have more information...Stay tuned.

Categories:

Electricity

3 Comments

adam - 04-22-2010

I got a call from GA Power today. They finalized the plan... Here it is:

The fuel surcharge for the Summer 2010 months is set at 4.6 cents per kwh

If you do the Nights and Weekends Plan and make sure you sign up for Nights and Weekends - FUEL, the rate will instead be:

Off-Peak: 4.3 cents
On-Peak: 5.6 cents

So you pay an extra penny during on-peak but save 0.3 cents during off-peak. Keep in mind on-peak is only 25 of your 168 hours per week, which is less than 15%. Even if you figured that on-peak is 20% of your usage (since those are the hottest hours of the day), your weighted average fuel surcharge cost is 4.56 cents per kwh (slightly less than the regular plan).

If you can shift your usage, you can save a few dollars per month. If not, you'll probably break even or spend a little more per month.

Regardless of what you decide, don't expect to see too big of an impact on your bill.

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