Latest / Not Another Energy Podcast / How To Shop For Gas In The Spring
Transcript
- Bethany Ruhe: Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to your new favorite podcast, Not Another Energy Podcast. I'm Bethany. Teresa Ringenbach: And I am Teresa and together we are Bloom Advisory Partners. Bethany Ruhe: We sure are and we are back in the studio kicking off the rust. We took a little break there and during that break we both went on our respective spring breaks with our families. Teresa, where did you guys head off to? Teresa Ringenbach: We did the standard Ohio goes to Florida. was nice. Nobody me that once you have a 21-year-old adult child, it really gets very expensive. ⁓ She much enjoyed her $30 cocktails. We had to put a stop to that. ⁓ Bethany Ruhe: This is not an all-inclusive holiday. yeah, yeah, not for you. Teresa Ringenbach: No, no. I mean, I guess for her it was, no, no. But we had a moment, ⁓ you know, you get older, your kids start to roast you, right? ⁓ So in the airport, they saw my, my son saw my driver's license picture, which is not great, who's is, but apparently mine looks like Eileen Wuornos, the serial killer. Bethany Ruhe: from Monster Fame. Teresa Ringenbach: Yeah, it really does. I'm gonna show it to you and you're gonna be like, yeah, no, don't show that to anybody. Bethany Ruhe: If our listeners start clamoring for it, I'll put it up on our LinkedIn page. No, I'm just kidding. I would not do that. Teresa Ringenbach: If we, if we, once we hit 100,000 followers, I'll put it out there. There you go. That's your incentive. Yeah. Bethany Ruhe: Yo, that's a great you heard that like share subscribe, know mine's pretty bad, too Mine is ⁓ bad that when I went to go get my real ID I didn't want to go get in the camera line and the lady that was waiting on me said do you want to go get a new photo and I said no and she looked at it looked at me and went are you sure ⁓ Teresa Ringenbach: haha and then you got in line. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, no I didn't it's the same bad photo. Oh, but we could do we could do a little swap Yeah, was it me and my bad driver's license photo We went over to Colorado for spring break and we had a fantastic week out west even though there was not a lot of skiing to be had Teresa Ringenbach: ⁓ I was gonna ask you, did you get any skiing done? Bethany Ruhe: We did, we skied on the Friday. There was some snow overnight Thursday, but I mean, most of the resorts were either closing while we were there or the weekend that we were leaving. climate change isn't real, y'all. Don't worry about it. Nothing to see here. ⁓ ⁓ mean, it's Colorado. We still had a great time. There's still so much to do. Teresa Ringenbach: Yeah, I saw your, ⁓ I liked your pictures where you sort of recreated a pirates player that Jones met when he was what, like seven years old? Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, yeah, so that, we're from Pittsburgh, if anybody doesn't know, and Pittsburgh Pirates are our hometown team and we love them. And one of Jonesy's favorite players is Neil Walker, who was on our flight home from Denver. So, and I had a, to have a picture and a photo album of Jones meeting him in 2015. Jones showed it to him and we got a new picture. So it was kind of a cool way to end the trip. Sometimes you can meet your heroes. Teresa Ringenbach: I love it. There you go. In Colorado. ⁓ Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, yeah, him and his family were coming back from spring break too. So yeah, it was really cool. It a nice way to end the trip. Our little spring break trip. And speaking of spring break, I know for me, when I think of spring, Teresa, only one thing really comes to my mind. that shopping for natural gas. How did you know that's what I was going to say? Teresa Ringenbach: Very fun. shopping for natural gas. because I've drilled it into your head for 10 years. Bethany Ruhe: Yes, yes shopping for natural gas and you know This is our first episode of season two and I could think of no better way to kick it off than talking about something that I know is Near and dear to your heart, so I'm just gonna let you rip. Let's go Teresa Ringenbach: All right, all right. So for those who are new to our podcast, I actually cut my teeth in the natural gas industry. So everybody talks about electric and electric shopping, but. In all reality, more states allow for natural gas choice, meaning you can provide, you can go and look for a different provider for your natural gas. There's about 21 states that do this for electricity, but there's actually nearly all of them allow natural gas shopping for commercial customers. And there's about five or six more that allow it for natural gas than electricity for residential customers. So if a residential customer, ⁓ Your state may or may not allow it. Check into that first, but a lot of them do far more than electric. Bethany Ruhe: Now, can I pop in here with a question? Why is that? Why is it easier to shop for gas than for electricity? Teresa Ringenbach: You know, honestly, I don't know. I'm kind of staring straight at Georgia right now. Georgia, you can shop for natural gas, but not electricity. ⁓ Most states have had natural gas choice forever. And by forever, I mean like since the 1980s. So the weird thing about gas that you can shop gas in many states, but not electric, you know, you're going to get me going on some sort of monopoly competition rant, but. Bethany Ruhe: Darn it, I shouldn't have asked that question. Let's just focus back on gas. We'll revisit this in a future podcast. Yeah, we'll interview Georgia. I'm gonna invite Georgia to be a guest, the state of Georgia. Teresa Ringenbach: Yes, off topic. Back to... Yes, yes, yes, Georgie got some explaining to do. Why can't we shop for electricity? So why are we talking about gas in the spring? Most people at this point are like, I don't care about my gas bill anymore. Heat is off, it's spring. Shoulder month relief from usage. Leave alone, Teresa. But actually that's exactly why we're talking about gas, because the best time to shop for natural gas is actually in the spring. Bethany Ruhe: And why would that be in the spring? Teresa Ringenbach: ⁓ this is where we get into the fun, Teresa pseudo geologist. So natural gas, unlike electricity, which is just produced and consumed simultaneously, natural gas is not. It can actually be stored. And it's stored in these large underground caverns. the way it's stored matters because these caverns are basically porous rock. Bethany Ruhe: Hahaha Teresa Ringenbach: if you keep the gas in there too long, it gets into the porous rock and can't be removed, which degrades the ⁓ that you're storing it in. So the next time around, you can't store as much gas. ⁓ it also means that you just lost natural gas that you can't use and sell it to the market. ⁓ ⁓ way that we fix that ⁓ when winter ends, ⁓ of these storage fields are drawn down. So basically, they get all of the gas out of storage. Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. Teresa Ringenbach: so that it can't be trapped into the porous rock. Again, I'm not a geologist and I'm not here for rock science, just, yeah. Yeah. The point is gas comes out of storage, it has to go somewhere. The excess supply typically tends to push spring prices lower. Bethany Ruhe: Don't come at us with your geology corrections. Teresa Ringenbach: Boom, there you go. In the fall, that's injection season. It's the opposite occurs. Everybody's buying in the market and pumping it back into storage, and it causes prices to rise. So most people shop in the fall. It's cold. I'm turning on my gas. I'm starting to think about my bill shock. It is the worst time for you to shop for natural gas. Don't do it in the fall. Do it in the spring. Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. That actually, that makes a lot of sense. And also I would like to point out that gas and champagne have more in common than I ever thought. Because that's also how you store champagne in caverns underground. Yeah, yeah, ⁓ I think ⁓ should go to Eperne and find out. Work trip. ⁓ this is for research. So. Teresa Ringenbach: Really? Oh, is there a time of year they have to get rid of it? Because we should go. Yes. Research. Research. Bethany Ruhe: Now we know we want to shop in the spring, not in the fall. it feels the most natural to do it, that's when it's going to be the most expensive. Get ahead of it. Put it on your spring list, right? So now, how did they go about doing that? Teresa Ringenbach: Yes, so step one, don't chase guarantees or headlines. You're not going to achieve that. You have to pick what's right for you and get comfortable with it. So step one, grab your last gas bill, preferably from February or March. The one that was the highest is the one that you really are going to want the data from. Next. your state or your local utility commission should have a website where all of the suppliers provide their offers to you. So that will allow you an easy way to compare offers and not have to figure out how do I go to Vistra's website or IGF's website or whatever. shout out to IGF, they're my supplier and I always get the best deals. So ⁓ a sponsor, just ⁓ preference. ⁓ Bethany Ruhe: There you go, I.G.S. Hashtag no sponsor. ⁓ Teresa Ringenbach: Next, your bill will have the unit of measure. So look for something that says CCF, ⁓ or your bill. If you're on the East Coast, it probably uses the word therm. That's your unit of measure. So you'll have a price per that unit that shows up on this website. The next thing you want to do is ⁓ rid of any ⁓ on that website that has an early termination fee. And we'll talk about why that's critical later. But if they're going to charge you an early termination fee, you don't want to be with that supplier. Next, length. Bethany Ruhe: Okay. Teresa Ringenbach: Okay, so you might see a really nice low rate on there that only lasts for one month. You don't want that, because remember, we're trying to get through an entire year. You do not want something that gets you to August, and then you're back shopping again at the absolute worst time of year, right? We are trying to avoid shopping at the wrong time. So 12 months or longer is what you want. And yes, a fixed rate. Bethany Ruhe: and fixed. Fixed rate. Okay, and I would also say make sure that it's fixed the entire term, right? Because some of them do swap to variable after a certain amount. Teresa Ringenbach: Yes Correct, and we'll talk about that too. So 12 months fixed, no termination fee. Don't look at the price yet. Just pick those terms first. you're going to run into how do I calculate this to see what my real price is. ⁓ of these offers will include a monthly minimum fee ⁓ a lower per term or per unit price. Bethany Ruhe: Okay. Mm-hmm. Teresa Ringenbach: Don't throw them out yet. Let's do a little math, because sometimes those are actually more beneficial. I know that there's a world out there where some consumer advocates are like, don't go with those, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's actually not a hidden feat. ⁓ of the suppliers who do that, they're taking their hedging costs, and they're separating it from their ⁓ commodity cost. So you're actually, in many ways, getting a more visible rate. But how do you do a one-to-one comparison to the other offers that are out there? So take that minimum fee, divide it by the usage from your highest month on your bill, and then add that back to their per unit amount. And that'll give you a comparable rate. Bethany Ruhe: So a little bit of math involved, but not too much. You haven't lost me yet. I'm still with you. Teresa Ringenbach: Right, right. And again, I say this as somebody who's been doing this for years, there are many, many times where having that minimum monthly fee actually works out in your favor. Because you're going to think, ⁓ but in the summer I'm still paying that $8 or whatever. But you're also paying a way lower rate. So don't throw it out. Don't listen to the noise. Listen to the 25-year-old in the industry person. OK. OK. Bethany Ruhe: Right, right. Well, you've been in the industry for 25 years. She is not a 25 year old person. She's 26. All right, go on, go on. Yeah. Teresa Ringenbach: All right, so now you have a per unit rate. your all in per unit rate. ⁓ it by your ⁓ each month on your bill. And your bill should, ⁓ I'm aware of any state that doesn't list out the last months of usage. So ⁓ if you that, then you can every single month see how much you're gonna pay for your natural gas. Pick the rate that ⁓ meets your for that month. The problem everybody has is they're constantly trying to chase some fictitious savings number. ⁓ is also not that I'm hating on all consumer advocates, but I think that sometimes they put out misleading information, especially on the gas side. ⁓ states ⁓ You have places like Georgia where there isn't some sort of default price to compare from your utility. So what are your savings? You don't know, right? ⁓ States like Ohio, where the default is basically whatever the market price is every single month. So it changes every single month. So if somebody says you're going to save, it's a backward-looking thing. Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. Teresa Ringenbach: Or you have states like Pennsylvania, Bethany, or New York, a lot of the New England states. They say, ⁓ here's your rate. But then they'll have some sort of gas recovery factor that comes in at a regulatory bait and switch that can change your gas price at any time. So joy of shopping is about ⁓ what you're going to pay no matter what every single month. It is not always about, ⁓ going to pay play the market and hope regulatory roulette doesn't come against me. Right? And that if you get take nothing else from this podcast this time guys, that's it. Calculate it out. Pick the rate that meets your budget every single month so you know what you're going to pay. Okay. Yes. Yes. Bethany Ruhe: and then lock it in. And honestly, I think budget certainty is a very good reason to participate in this exercise, right? mean, just going through this past winter, and I'll be honest, I didn't shop for gas last year. So I'd hope be still, but you know what? I really wish that I had. And so now this is a very timely episode for me, Teresa, because I will be immediately using this information. Teresa Ringenbach: Casp! I mean, my friends call me all the time. think my Cleveland friends right now, most of them are probably with Shipley. They were with Dynagy last year. I'm sort of name dropping here, but the reality is there are so many options on the gas side and you should never have a surprise bill. And if you aren't shopping, you're gonna get a surprise bill. Regulatory risk is a real thing. You can control it. Go shop. Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I know, and I'll be your little guinea pig for this too, so I will shop, but maybe we could update in a podcast. I'll be the heat pump guinea pig, I'll be the gas shopping guinea pig, I'm here to do the work for the pod. Teresa Ringenbach: Yeah, sure. mean, we just got out of a really, really cold winter. Do you know my highest gas bill was? Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. I'm probably gonna get mad, but go ahead, what was it? Teresa Ringenbach: $200 for one month. That was the highest one. Bethany Ruhe: slam and shot my laptop. I think mine was over $500. Yeah, from Columbia, guess. Teresa Ringenbach: This is, you guys can't see me giving her the face of. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, she's giving me the, well, you should have shopped. Listen to Teresa. And she's right. I mean, honestly, I'm 100 % gonna do it. It is one of those things to, you you just walk them through kind of the process. It could be a little bit time consuming. So to some people that might be a deterrent, but honestly, you're talking about what? A half an hour of your time to save potentially thousands of dollars over the year. It's worth it. Teresa Ringenbach: Yep, yep. Yeah, it's actually, once you do it once and you sort of follow our step by step, which we'll put on the website for you guys too, once you do that, it makes it a lot easier because you're not overwhelmed by the number of offers. You're really filtering based on certain criteria until you get to the point where you're like, okay, now I have three offers that meet my criteria, which do I like best? Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and also you've picked up a great way to start a conversation at a party. Do you shop for gas? Have you shopped for gas? Let me tell you about shopping for gas, right? You'll become an advocate. Teresa Ringenbach: every family event. I mean like I said, like my friends, I'm not joking the fact that they will call me. My dad had a door-to-door guy come to his door two months ago and he ⁓ on cell phone he's like, there's a guy at my door, he's offering me this and I'm like, okay dad, hold on, let me look it up. Nope, not a good offer, tell the guy this, right? But shop. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, Teresa Ringenbach: It is your right, it drives me nuts that people are like, ⁓ I could wind up in a place where I'm in a bad deal. I mean, maybe ⁓ a bad deal to you is you're this fictitious world of leprechauns, rainbows, and butterflies that you're always going to save, but that's not what shopping's about. It's about knowing what you're paying every single month, which brings us early termination fees. Bethany Ruhe: Yes, yes, let's talk about early termination fees. Why is that something that people want to avoid when they see that on a contract? Teresa Ringenbach: So two big reasons. One, because we are shopping in the spring. If you don't have an early termination fee, that lets you leave if the market drops and you want a lower price later. And you don't have to pay a fee to leave your supplier. So it gives you the opportunity to say, hey, prices were a little bit high in April. They've gone down a little bit this summer. I'm going to switch to a lower 12-month rate now that it's June. you are basically playing the market for free when you don't have an early termination fee. Bethany Ruhe: Okay, I mean that makes sense. Now would you say, and this is purely anecdotal because I'm sure you're not aware of every single offer out there, but would you say that they're more common than not common? Teresa Ringenbach: I think it's becoming more common. I also would argue this. ⁓ you fall in love with a really great offer and it has an early termination fee and the market drops, as long as that new offer is from the same company, typically most suppliers, they, ⁓ to what you hear out there, they do actually want to make their customers happy, ⁓ will let you switch to their lower offer without paying a fee. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah. Okay, so. Teresa Ringenbach: And like, side note, most of them won't charge that early termination fee if you call them and want to negotiate anything. They really are very good at that. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, they want to keep your business if they can, so don't be afraid to call and make an ask. Teresa Ringenbach: Yes, exactly. Bethany Ruhe: So then what happens now? Okay, so you got your deal, you got a great 12 month fixed, it's coming to an end. We're talking about renewal time. What are some things to think about and look for? Because the market's probably changed in the year since you had your contract, so now what? Teresa Ringenbach: Yes, so as with everything, whether it's your cell phone, your internet service, always switch before you roll to an evergreen part of your contract because you will pay a higher price. How do you know how to do that? Well, one, set up reminders in a calendar. understand. 60 days before your contract is ending that you should be looking in shopping and switching away. Number two, make sure you're going to receive things from your supplier that are going to send you these reminders. So pay attention to them. Don't throw it on the counter and say, this is just an advertisement. ⁓ I think all states at this point that offer natural gas shopping require that that notice say something about renewals on the outside of the envelope. So really pay attention to that. You don't want to roll to an evergreen price. It will be higher. That is just the reality of any business anywhere. So as long as you play it smart and you know your renewal time, you will always be making the best decision. Bethany Ruhe: Mm-hmm. Okay, so we've got our how to shop, which we will put on the website and then also link to that in the show notes. We got things to look out for. We've got why you should shop in spring. I'd like to end with, why aren't, why shop in the first place period? Why is the utility maybe not always your best bet? Teresa Ringenbach: reasons. Utilities are regulated entities, which ⁓ I everyone wants to think of that as some sort of security blanket. It's not. ⁓ It's a loss of control for you as the consumer. You ⁓ are subject when the decides change rates, if the regulator will those rates. ⁓ Let's be honest, they go up. ⁓ You're subject to We talked about that GCR. GCRs, in my experience, were terrible when I had to live through them because what they would do is to judge down the rates at certain times. They would push those costs out and those costs would build and build and build. So then you got to a point where when it hit you, your total bill just went through the roof, even though the market was out of line with that. So why do you shop? You shop for certainty. So you control what your price is. You control when it changes. and you control what it is. Bethany Ruhe: I love that. I think that's a great way to end this pod. Teresa, what do you think? All right, so now you know, folks, get out there, do your gas shopping, put it on your list for the spring, right? Not the fall, you heard Teresa, stay away from that. Teresa Ringenbach: I Don't chase false savings. It's about control. Bethany Ruhe: It is about control. And another thing too to remember is to get the word out on our pod because once we reach 100,000 followers, Teresa and I are going to unveil our driver's license photos and you can decide who's his worst. Teresa Ringenbach: with a side by side with a serial killer rematch. Bethany Ruhe: Yeah, exactly. I would love to put that to the people for a vote. But in the meantime, thank you guys for joining us. Thank you for listening. We hope you come back next week. We're hot into season two. Super excited to bring you guys more episodes. So thank you again. Again, I'm Bethany. We are Bloom Advisory Partners. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, energy is never just about energy. Teresa Ringenbach: and I'm Teresa.