Frequently Asked Questions.

We offer several services, but Alden Energy Consulting LLC primarily helps manage and negotiate power and gas contracts for our customers.

This is the best question a customer can ask, especially when one considers the opacity of energy markets. We start looking at wholesale power pricing before anything and then evaluate your historical usage patterns across your meters. Pricing in general is based on a meter’s annualized load factor, which isn’t easily determined from a single bill copy. We can assign a range of “favorable pricing” retail adders based on the load factor/wholesale numbers/credit/etc. to easily determine which energy suppliers are serious about winning your business and which should be passed upon in this instance.

Additionally, we have recently incorporated a third-party pricing estimation tool that provides a neutral viewpoint based on the same factors we’re always used to evaluate incoming bids.

In general, we are compensated by splitting the sales commission with the inside sales group of whatever Retail Energy Provider (REP) you might choose and ONLY IF you decide to go with them. Therefore, it’s imperative to our survival that we give our best effort with every customer to ensure you are seeing the most competitive pricing available that day. In certain cases, we may arrange a fixed-fee style agreement or receive referral fees on various projects from other third parties we work with.

How close did they get to the wholesale price for your last power supply contract? Electricity procurement in deregulated markets is unlike purchasing anything else an organization needs. The product cannot be stored, and pricing fluctuates based on a dizzying confluence of factors. The complexity of the ERCOT market alone is beyond the scope of expertise for many participants, let alone a procurement manager who looks at electricity supply agreements every couple of years. We aim to ensure that all our customers are paying exactly what they should be based on their load factor, not simply “the best choice” on a poorly designed RFP/RFQ

Of course, we encourage customers to contact us first if anything ever comes up, so that they can concentrate on their own business. Not everyone behaves like this, but you can have our assurance that we will never disappear after any agreement is executed, rather we are happy to provide as much (or little) support as needed throughout its duration. We are constantly watching the market for future opportunities to hedge and can alert you to those, so you can concentrate on other matters.

And while we never anticipate billing errors with any of the REPs we work with, occasionally situations arise that require additional expertise and we can almost always resolve anything far quicker than you might on your own. Simply never having to call the customer service department of a Retail Energy Provider is worth its weight in gold for our customers.

How are you comparing bids that arrive? There are multiple variations of fixed pricing (much less anything more complex) and comparing bids from everyone that complied with such a request will make you quickly rethink the approach. If it were simply that easy, we wouldn’t exist in the market and would ultimately be doing you a disservice without, at a minimum, evaluating your historical usage prior to sending any executable pricing. We can however, provide ranges and pricing estimates based on what you tell us, but none of that can be used for decision-making purposes. Let’s discuss some options today.

Of course, we can offer as much or little support as necessary. While we primarily specialize in electricity and natural gas procurement, we can also assist commercial customers with demand side management, utility bill auditing and other energy efficiency projects. That could include lighting retrofits, power factor correction, or equipment upgrade(s) if necessary. Over the years, we’ve encountered only a handful of customers who have exhausted all their options to optimize their energy management.