Sample bid
The second half of the job. We take the meter the teardown measured, send it to every retailer who will quote it, and hand you what comes back without editing it.
One · what we asked them
Every retailer got an identical request: your twelve months of interval data, your ESI ID, the start date, and three term lengths. That matters more than it sounds. A quote given against a different start date or a different assumed load is not comparable to the one beside it, and a list of numbers that are not comparable is worse than no list.
Every request also states, in writing, exactly who we are: your representative, not you and not a customer of theirs. We are registered with the Public Utility Commission as a broker, which is what Texas calls anyone who advises on choosing a retailer, and we tell each of them that our compensation is zero and that the price must be quoted with no broker fee inside it.
That last sentence is the one that matters. When a broker is involved, retailers normally build the broker's fee into the rate, and the customer never sees it. We ask them to quote net. Where a retailer offers us a margin anyway, we decline it and say so in this document, so you can see what was on the table and what we did with it.
Two · what came back
| Retailer | 24-month | 36-month | Fixed? | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retailer C | 6.05¢ | 6.22¢ | Fully fixed | Nothing unusual in the contract |
| Retailer A | 6.09¢ | 6.19¢ | Fully fixed | Termination is the greater of $5,000 or the remaining term |
| Retailer F | 6.11¢ | 6.28¢ | Fully fixed | Requires a deposit of two average bills |
| Retailer B | 5.94¢ | 6.08¢ | Pass-through | Not a fixed price. Grid and capacity charges float, so the cheap headline can move every month |
| Retailer D | 6.24¢ | 6.40¢ | Fully fixed | Nothing unusual |
| Retailer G | 6.31¢ | 6.44¢ | Fully fixed | Bandwidth clause: usage outside 80–120% of forecast is repriced at market |
| Retailer E | 6.47¢ | 6.55¢ | Fully fixed | Nothing unusual |
| Retailer H | 6.62¢ | 6.71¢ | Fully fixed | Auto-renews unless canceled 60 days out |
Three retailers declined to quote this meter at all, which is normal and is not a judgment on your business. Two do not serve loads under 100 kW and one is not taking new CenterPoint accounts this quarter. Their names are in the appendix of the real document.
A quote is not a number. It is a term sheet, and the number on the front is the least negotiable thing in it. Every reply is attached to this report exactly as it arrived, and these are the terms we read out of each one:
| Term | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Price and what it covers | Energy only, or energy plus the grid and capacity charges. Two quotes that look a cent apart can be a different product entirely. |
| Fixed, indexed or pass-through | Whether the number can move, and which parts of it. |
| Start date and how long the quote holds | Most hold three to five business days. A quote against a different start date is not comparable to the one beside it. |
| Bandwidth or swing | The usage range the price assumes. Outside it, you are repriced at market. |
| Termination | What leaving early costs, and whether it is a flat figure or the remaining term. |
| Credit and deposit | Whether they want a deposit, a guarantee, or a credit check that leaves a footprint. |
| Renewal | Whether it auto-renews, and how many days notice you must give to stop it. |
| The contract itself | The agreement you would sign, attached in full. Nobody should sign a rate on the strength of a table in somebody else's report. |
In the real document every row above links to that retailer's own quote and contract as they sent it. We do not retype their terms and ask you to trust our summary. See what one of those attachments looks like →
Best fully fixed
6.05¢
Retailer C, 24 months. Against the 6.40¢ you pay now.
The spread
0.68¢
Between the best and worst reply. On your usage that is $2,108 a year between the extremes.
Worth switching
$1,085
a year, moving from 6.40¢ to 6.05¢.
Three · the cheapest number is not the cheapest deal
Retailer B quoted 5.94¢, which on your usage is $341 a year below the best fixed price, and on a spreadsheet it wins. It is not a fixed price. Grid and capacity charges are passed through at whatever they turn out to be, which in a hot August has moved bills by double digits with nothing in the contract to stop it.
If you want that risk it is a legitimate product and some businesses take it deliberately. But it is a different thing from what you asked for, and putting it at the top of a list of fixed prices without saying so is how people end up furious in September.
Retailer G is the other one to read carefully. The bandwidth clause reprices you at market if your usage falls outside 80 to 120 percent of forecast. A machine shop winning or losing one large contract can cross that line without noticing.
Four · what we would do
Retailer C at 6.05¢ on a 24-month term is the best fully fixed price with nothing awkward in the contract. It saves $1,085 a year against what you pay now and takes about ten minutes to sign.
Reasons to choose differently. Retailer A costs $124 a year more over 24 months but $93 a year less over 36. If you would rather be done with this until 2029, take A's 36-month at 6.19¢ instead. And if your usage is about to change, because you are adding a machine or a shift, say so before you sign anything: a bandwidth clause can cost you far more than the hundred dollars between these two.
What happens next
You sign directly with whoever you pick. We are not on the contract, we do not hold your account, and we are not notified when you sign. The quotes above are held for the dates each retailer stated, which for most of them is five business days. If they lapse we will re-run the request at no charge.
Every quote above is a price on the top layer of your bill. The teardown is what tells you how much of the bill that layer actually is.