Category Archives: Just Energy

Texas Electricity Provider Map

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Last week’s purchase of First Choice Power by Direct Energy was yet another major acquisition of a Retail Electricity Provider by a major energy conglomerate. There’s been around a half a dozen of these deals in the past year, and in my opinion things have gotten a bit muddled and confusing. So I wanted to write a post to chart exactly who owns who in the deregulated electricity space in Texas.

Dominion Resources: Dominion Energy probably isn’t a name that is very recognized by Texas electricity customers. However, they are a huge energy company that deals in both energy generation and distribution in multiple states. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, they own the incumbent and regulated electricity providers in Virginia and North Carolina. In Texas, they own Cirro Energy, which they purchased in 2008. Earlier this year, Cirro Energy purchased Simple Power and absorbed their customers.

NRG: NRG, a new Jersey based company, is another huge energy company with massive power generation resources. On top of energy generation plants, NRG also owns Green Mountain Energy, which they purchased in 2010 for 350 million dollars. In 2009, they purchased former incumbent Texas electricity provider Reliant Energy for 287 million and change when Reliant was under heavy financial distress. This was a steal considering Reliant was the second largest REP in the state at the time and has huge brand recognition. In turn, Reliant Energy owns (and I believe operates) Pennywise Power, which is a new brand they’ve put into the deregulated Texas electricity market to try and capture different customers without effecting their core brand. So NRG owns Green Mountain and Reliant, and Reliant in turn owns Pennywise Power.

Just Energy – Just Energy is yet another big energy company, with resources all over North America. They had been a fairly smaller player in the retail electricity market in Texas until recently. Just Energy itself was mostly a niche provider, offering 5 year long term contracts to customers. However, they recently purchased the entire retail arm of Fulcrum Power. That includes Amigo Energy, Tara Energy, and Smart Prepaid. So now all of those brands are part of the Just Energy portfolio. They’ll likely keep the branding and still do business under the names Tara and Amigo, but it’s all Just Energy. Just Energy also owns another smaller REP, Commerce Energy.

Direct Energy: Direct Energy is actually a subsidiary of a British company called Centrica, but they’re known almost exclusively in North America as Direct Energy, so that’s the name we’re going with. Direct Energy is yet another huge energy generation company with huge and varied resources. In the retail electricity space they do business as Direct Energy and they are one of the biggest REP’s in Texas. They also operate in Texas as WTU Energy and CPL Energy in two respective TDSPs. In the Spring, Direct Energy also purchased Gateway Energy Resources for 90 millions dollars. Since then, Direct has removed Gateway as a brand from doing business in Texas. Just last week, Direct Energy made another huge purchase, this time of First Choice Power for 270 million dollars. Which is a huge price tag. So, as of now, every company I mentioned above is really a subsidiary of Direct Energy.

Constellation Energy: Constellation Energy is the largest energy supplier in America. Their 2007 revenues were 21 billion dollars. So yes, they’re another big energy guy. They own the regulated electricity entity Baltimore Gas and Electric. In 2 month period last spring and summer, Constellation announced purchases of both StarTex Power as well as MX Energy, two retail electricity providers that operate in the Texas deregulated markets.

Gexa Energy: NextEra Energy is the parent company of Florida Power and Light, the regulated electricity provider for much of Florida. They’re another big energy company, having generation resources in over 20 states. In 2005, Florida Power & Light purchased Gexa Energy. They still do business in Texas under the name Gexa.

Dynowatt: Dynowatt is a subsidiary of Accent Energy, which is a large company with natural gas ties in Ohio. Accent also serves deregulated New York, but they do business in Texas as Dynowatt.

TXU Energy: TXU is actually a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, which also owns Luminant, the power generation portion of the old TXU company that was forced to split because of deregulation laws. Now Luminant and TXU operate separately. TXU is the largest individual REP in Texas and one of the two former incumbent providers.

The following Retail Electricity Providers are stand-alone entities:

Texpo Energy: Texpo Energy is a smaller company operating in Texas. What makes them interesting is that they actually operate under 3 different brand names while all sharing the same PUC Certificate. The other two brands are Southwest Power & Light and YEP. So to sum things up, Texpo, Southwest Power & Light, and YEP are all the same company operating in Texas under different names.

  • Champion Energy
  • Stream Energy
  • Ambit Energy
  • Brilliant Energy
  • Texas Power
  • Liberty Power
  • Mega Energy
  • APNA Energy
  • Bounce Energy
  • Spark Energy

    • Hopefully this helps to give people a clearer picture about who some of the players are in Texas electricity. It is important that people know exactly who the company is that is supplying their electricity. For example, if someone had a bad experience with one company, they might not want to get service from another one of their subsidiaries. And since there’s been so many purchases and mergings of REP’s in the last 6 months, I thought it might be a good idea to chronicle which companies have ended where after the dust has settled. I’ll try to update this page moving forward as well. I doubt we’ve seen the last of big REP acquisitions, so this family tree might change.

    I’ve included a crude flowchart below. Yes, I do realize it looks like it was put together by a 3rd grader.

    Market Prices: Month to Month Plans 5/3

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    It’s a busy day here at Texas Electricity Ratings. I’m in the process of updating our rankings based on the performance and activity of the last 3 months of the different electricity providers. However, before I get to publishing that information, I wanted to be sure to get our the monday Shopping Guide for different Month to Month plans in the electricity marketplace. So here’s our look at the different electric rates for month to month plans available to customers. As always, check to make sure if the rates are promotional rates, and if so, what the rates will be a month or two after a customers signs up for service. Particularly, a couple of the plans listed below are definitely promotional rates, so be sure to ask questions or read the fine print when ordering.

    Cheapest Month to Month Plans:

  • StarTex Power – 7.9
  • APNA Energy – 7.9
  • Dynowatt – 7.9
  • Southwest Power & Light – 8.0
  • YEP – 8.0
  • Bounce Energy – 8.3

    • And now, as always, here’s a look at the most expensive plans in the market for comparison.

    Most Expensive Month to Month Plans

  • Texpo – 12.7
  • Reliant – 12.4
  • Just Energy – 11.6

    • Newest Electricity Plans on the Market

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    Most of what we post here on the TER blog centered on specific news in the Texas Electricity market, be it provider news or marketplace news. We’re going to take a bit of a different angle today and took a look at some of the different plans that have hit the market from various REPs (Retail Electricity Providers) recently. Also, it should be noted that all of the prices/rates listed below are based on the Houston area market. Rates in Dallas will on average be about approximately half a cent lower, and the rates in Central Texas might be about half a cent higher.

    Ambit:

  • Texas Select Variable Plan – The name says it all on this one, it is a month to month variable rate plan. The current price point for 1,000 Kilowatts-per-hour is at 11.5 cents. The 500 Kilowatt-per-hour price point is at 12.3 cents.
  • Certified Green Texas Variable Plan – This is Ambit’s other new plan, which is also a month to month variable plan. It is a 100% renewable green plan, so that’s always a nice product to offer for people looking to reduce their carbon footprint. The 1,000 Kilowatt-per-hour price point is 12.8 cents, and the 500 Kilowatt-per-hour price point is 13.6 cents.

    Bounce Energy:

  • Fantastic Fixed Six – Bounce’s new plan sounds more like a superhero team than an electricity plan, but beneath the catchy name is actually a pretty good price plan. It is a 6 month fixed plan with a $4.95 monthly fee that is waived if the customer utilizes the 1,000 Killowatt-per-hour energy range. The 1,000 KwH rate is 11 cents, and the 500 KwH rate is 12 cents. Good rates. And on top of that, this new plan comes with Bounce’s usual goody bag of items like potential bill credits, free magazine subscriptions, and enrollment into their loyalty rewards program.

    First Choice:

  • Simply Better Price Plan 12 – This is a 12 month fixed rate plan that comes with a $4.95 monthly charge. What it offers is pretty straightforward, and the price plans are as follows: 13.6 cents for 1,000 Kilowatts-per-hour, and 14.1 cents for 500 Kilowatts-per-hour. These are not great prices. Gexa has a 2 year Green Energy plan that is cheaper than this, so I’d not recommend this plan.

    Gexa:

  • Gexa Guaranteed 24 – One of Gexa’s two new plans is the Guaranteed 24 plan, which is a 2 year fixed rate plan Gexa has started offering. The price point is 12.7 cents per 1,000 Kilowatt-per-hour, while the 500 Kilowatt-per-hour rate is 13.9 cents.
  • Gexa Green 24 – This is Gexa’s new fixed rate plan for green energy. The plan is 2 years fixed, and the energy is 100% Green energy. The price points are 13.1 cents and 14.5 cents for 1,000 and 500 Kilowatt-per-hours respectively.

    Just Energy:

  • Electricity Fixed Rate Program – This is definitely a different kind of plan out there. The plans lengths are either 4 or 5 YEARS. So, this is for the really long term commitment and people who have no interest in playing the market. 1,000 Kilowatt-per-hour usage is set at 14 cents, and 500 Kilowatt-per-hour usage is tabbed at 14.5 cents. There’s also a monthly $4.95 fee.

    StarTex:

  • Star “Summer Sizzle” 4 Month Plan – Well, in today’s humorous note comes StarTex Power. I went to their website to find more information on this plan, only to discover that this plan isn’t listed (at least not in this verbiage) on their website. Way to be consistent StarTex. I’ll assume this is what on their website is listed as the Secure 4 plan. It’s a 4 month plan which they advertise as 9.9 cents, but this if for the 2,000 Kilowatt-per-hour price, so be careful there. The 1,000 Kilowatt-per-hour plan is 10.1, and the 500 Kilowatt-per-hour plan is 10.4 cents. All in all, that’s pretty good prices, even if they’re not sure what to call the plan.

    So here’s some of the latest plans to hit the market from various REPs. Keep in mind, all of the other REP’s on the market will likely have changed the price points on their plans as well, so that is worth checking into as well if you want to get the cheapest electricity service possible.