By Wendy Bernshausen
UHCLIDIAN STAFF

With the passing of Senate Bill Seven in 1999, Texas launched its efforts to successfully deregulate the electric industry by January 2002 and give you, the consumer, the power to choose.

Now, 11 months into deregulation, Texas has seen the fall of energy giant Enron and recently watched Reliant Energy stock prices plunder. Besides the potential effects on energy companies, what does deregulation mean for the customers?

The answer to that question depends on who you are. For the average residential customer who pays their bill by the first due date each month, deregulation has its benefits. For this customer, switching to a different retail electric provider can mean an average savings of approximately $10 per 1,000 kilowatts of electricity.

However, if you are one of those customers who can't quite make your payment by the due date, the penalties are shocking. If you consistently pay late, your retail electric provider can choose not to provide you with service anymore and require you to find a new provider. If no other company will take you due to your credit history or your inability to pay a security deposit, you will have to purchase your power through the provider of last resort and pay an extremely high rate.

Some companies have also increased their fees for turning on service and setting up new metered services more than 50 percent since deregulation. Not only have the fees increased, but so has the waiting period to activate these services.

The typical wait to have an electric meter turned on in a home or apartment is now five to seven days and sometimes longer.

For the other type of energy consumer, the large commercial consumer, such as grocery stores, industrial parks and manufacturers, the benefits of deregulation exceed those of the residential customer.

Commercial customers purchase their electricity through a negotiated contract, often seeing significant savings on their electric bills. Like residential customers, they have the ability to gather bids from retail electric providers and go with the lowest price; however, commercial customer's pricing is negotiable. Depending on their usage and the current fuel pricing, a retail electric provider can offer commercial customers a rate as low as 3 cents per kilowatt hour.

Commercial customers are also subject to the same penalties as residential customers for consistently paying late. They are also subject to long waits for new service; however, the fact that they are commercial customers means their wait could possibly be considerably less, depending on how much electricity they use.

This leaves some Texans questioning the whole purpose of electric deregulation in the first place. Texas legislators envisioned an electric industry that did not resemble a monopoly and gave the customer the opportunity to decide what electric company would offer them great service at a great price. Some Texans would agree that this is what they are getting, but others would beg to differ.

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