Q & A: Electric plan consultant gives power back to consumers

Andrew Barth is more or less a Houston native and the son of a former Enron employee, and he has a job that can be difficult to explain outside of Texas. He is the senior vice president at Incite Energy, a consulting company that helps other companies navigate Texas' deregulated market and buy power plans. In most of Texas, where electric utilities were deregulated 15 years ago, getting electricity means sifting through hundreds of power plans sold by retail electric companies. It's Barth's job to help his clients - mostly commercial businesses - pick plans that work for them.

Barth also serves as the volunteer president of the Energy Professionals Association, an industry advocacy group that works with electric companies in deregulated markets around the country.

Barth met with the Chronicle and offered advice on how to pick a power plan.

Q: What's on TEPA's agenda for 2017?

A: To understand TEPA in the basic form, we are a resource for everybody who is interested in learning about deregulated marketplaces, the value of the deregulated marketplaces and what role everybody serves inside of those. So for 2017, our goals are really to focus on having a more unified front across Illinois, Ohio the Northeast and Texas. Education is always going to be on the top of our list. I would say that the third would be working with our legislators. We are good sources for information for them as well. If they are interested in finding out why something happened in a certain market, why other markets are acting in certain ways, then we become valuable points of contact for them, too.

Q: How does Incite Energy fit into the mix of customers and energy providers in the deregulated market?

A: Incite is what we call an energy services company. Our day-to-day efforts mostly lie on the consulting side of the business. We also get referred to as the ABC - the aggregator, broker and consultant side of the business. We typically play the role of the consultant more than we do any other role because of the way that we manage our clients - the way that we remain on before, during and after a contract is executed. There are many folks that will say here's a rate, sign the contract and walk away. We don't believe in that model. We believe that the customer is a customer of ours and the supplier's throughout that entire contact.

Q: Speaking to me as a residential consumer, what are some red flags I should watch out for when signing up for a power plan?

A: If you were out shopping for a residential contact, the first thing I would say is make sure you don't get into a gimmick rate. Make sure that the rate you are going to get is a fixed rate regardless of the amount of kilowatt-hours you are going to use. Now, there may be some different customer charges - for instance, you may pay a $5 fee if you use below 1,000 kilowatt-hours - those we typically see and are industry standard. What you don't want to see is a rate that says 12 cents for the 999 kilowatt-hours and then your effective rate once you hit 1000 kilowatt-hours is 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. That is basically a scam. If you were to investigate the electricity facts label, you would find that information is in there, they explain how it happens, but basically I would say that the average consumer would not be able to determine why that rate is the way it is. I would say that rate is set up to mislead.

Q: So you're saying I shouldn't be lured by a lower rate for usage after I've hit 1,000 kilowatt-hours?

A: Yes. It's one thing if your first 500 kilowatt-hours are 9.9 cents, and then at 1,000 kilowatt-hours it's 9.7 cents, because there's varying degrees of fixed prices that are included. If you have one that says your first 500 kilowatt-hours are 12 cents, and your first 1,000 kilowatt-hours are 3 cents, you need to be careful. What you often find is, if you don't hit that 1,000 kilowatt-hours - if you're living in a small home, or apartment or it's the winter, and especially if you are using gas heat - you're probably not going to hit that rate, right? So what you are going to pay is this extremely high rate for the amount of kilowatt-hours that you are using. So really, unless you are going to use exactly 1,000 kilowatt-hours, you are going to continue to pay higher and higher rates the more power you use. The reason I say to look for a fixed rate is you want something that is going to be fixed and fair, no matter what amount of kilowatt-hours you use, you are always going to pay the same rate. And that's what I would advise most people to look for.