| | AUGUST 202119the price for a kWh of electricity capped out at $900 per kWh. Some consumers exposed on variable rate contracts received monthly billing statements for tens of thousands of dollars. Large businesses that consume a lot of energy were getting six figure electric bills. Our clients on fixed rate contracts continued to pay $.06 cents per kWh. Ouch! Don't make this mistake! It really surprised me over the years; most businesses don't manage their contracts very well. Perhaps they think the energy supplier will let them know when their contract is going to expire. That's generally not the case. Most energy supply contracts have some clause that deals with pricing after your fixed rate contract expires. First thing that happens, you will be switched to a variable rate and the supplier can increase what they charge you above and beyond what the market rate is for that month. Unfortunately, we see this too often when we first engage a new client that is out of contract. It's common to see them being overcharged 30-50-100%. One of our most outrageous examples was a small municipality that had been out of contract for four years. When we did our initial evaluation, we discovered they were paying $.36 cents per kWh. When we completed our bidding process, we obtained pricing at $.07 cents. That's a 400% higher rate than they should have been paying simply because they continued on a default rate after an expired contract. We don't let that happen to our clients. Ninety days before their contracts expire we start the bidding process again, insuring we keep them in best energy pricing, on and on, year after year. Another mistake we see is electricity contracts ending in the middle of summer or natural gas contracts ending in the middle of winter. This is simple to fix. Instead of doing a 12, 24, or 36-month contract, structure the term of your contract to end in the fall. If your contract ends in a high demand season you're always renewing at a time when energy rates are high. You want your contract to end when demand is historically low. That's the season when prices will be low. More on that Later Remember my earlier question; if you, the business consumer, could identify which company bought at the lower price, wouldn't that be a big advantage? Avion Energy got its start in July of 2010. We set out to create a system whereby we could find who had the best price for our clients. We've built the largest network of third- party suppliers, all willing to bid on our platform of competition (over 80 suppliers). Depending on the utility company and which of our suppliers are licensed to do business in that state, we may have 12-15, perhaps even 20 suppliers bidding on our client's energy supply. You'd think their prices would be very close. They know they're competing for the business. However, it's very common to see a 25-35% spread between the lowest and the highest price! Business energy consumers just don't realize this. If they subscribe to standard business practice and get 3 bids, they're not likely to find the best price. Let's face it, no one in upper management is going to task an employee with getting 17 price quotes that all have to be delivered the same day to be an apple to apple comparison. It requires some form of technology to perform such a feat. So they settle for 3 bids, and settle for paying a higher price than what might be available. Our clients leverage our proprietary technology; they see the price quotes from all the competing energy suppliers in an apple to apples comparison. They clearly see who has the best price for electricity or natural gas and can make a well-informed choice. Jim Charron
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