I was glad to see in this article from today’s Star-Telegram that some of the electric providers are now offering plans that tie electric costs more closely to the cost of natural gas.  I’ve been increasingly annoyed at TXU’s high prices, which are based on unusually high post-Katrina gas costs.  Despite gas having gone down since then, TXU has continued to charge high rates.

In late December I did some research to see what kinds of competing plans were available.  There were some that had better rates ($0.11/kWh vs the standard rate of about $0.15/kWh that TXU charged).  Unfortunately, all of those plans required a long-term committment and an agreement to let them draft your checking account for payment.  I don’t like either of those requirements, but the direct-draft thing is a deal-killer for me.  I generally don’t let a company do direct billing unless it’s something that has a fixed cost and where I trust them enough not to suddenly send me a $10,000 bill and try to debit my account for it.  I certainly don’t trust TXU enough for that.

The good news is that these new plans don’t appear to require any long-term committment.  I’m going to have to do some more research to see if they still have direct-billing requirements, though.  But I like the idea of one that is more tied to the price of gas.  Not that I particularly like to have my bill increase, but at least I could understand it if the price of gas changes.  I just want a plan that also tracks the decreases.