Power companies can still reject you if you paid to find low price
By. L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle, 5/7/2020
The maddening experience of shopping for electricity has spawned a group of concierge websites that say they find the lowest-price plans and move their customers when better deals appear.
But some retail electric providers are refusing to do business with the sites, and regulators have decided that’s OK — at least for now, despite concerns over fairness and competition.
The state’s Public Utility Commission approved new rules for electricity brokers last week, including a provision that lets energy retailers refuse to sell electricity plans to customers of the deal-finding sites.
The commission agreed with trade groups representing the biggest electricity sellers in Texas that a fundamental principle of competitive markets is that buyers and sellers come together willingly, according to the order. But PUC Chairman DeAnn Walker said during a commission meeting last week that the more she thought about it, the more concerned she became that power retailers were trying to shut out the concierge sites.
“It just doesn’t feel right to me,” Walker said. But she, along with the other two commissioners, opted to wait to see how the market shakes out before intervening.
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