Weather and your Electricity Bill

Everyone in the state of Texas is familiar, even ifovertime to keep up with the increased demand for
they don’t understand why, of the fact thatcustomers to keep their homes and business cool.
their electricity bills might rise and fall from month toThese two factors combined to essentially cause a
month depending on the time of the year. Forgenerator to go offline. So before when the demand
Texans, this fact is specifically true in thewas at its peak, now there’s even one less
summertime. But what might be curious to people isgenerator helping to produce electricity and keep
how this happens, even if a customer has a fixedthings cool. Ironically, this caused the price of
rate plan and fastidiously keeps their thermostat atelectricity to go up even higher, which was a cost
the same setting, month in and month outdifference that had to be paid out by both the Retail
throughout the course of the year. So if this is theElectricity Providers (REPs) like Bounce Energy,
case, why does your electricity bill fluctuate? Well,Reliant, TXU, etc. These companies who sell
there are many different reasons, but unquestionably,electricity to customers have to pay higher prices for
a huge factor that affects your electricity bill is thethem, and that cost is then passed onto the
weather.customers themselves. And all of this can be tied in
For Texans, lets start with what we’re mostdirectly to the oppressive summer weather in the
familiar with, which is the summertime. As I’vestate of Texas.
said, everyone knows that our bills go up in theWinter and Your Electricity Bill
summer, and we know basically that this is becauseWell, we’ve taken a look at summer, but
the summers in Texas get hotter. But why does thiswintertime has its own set of ways in which it
affect your electric bill? Well, to understand why thisaffects your electricity bill. Now, things are different in
is, you need to wrap you head around the basicthe State of Texas than they are in the northern
understanding of temperature and your electricity bill.states, for certain, but lets take a second to
For Texans, even if you keep your thermostat at 72overview how it works all over. The same way that
all year round, when it’s 100 degrees outside,the summertime is the most expensive time of the
suddenly your generators have to work to move theyear for Texas, in the northern states, the most
temperature down 28 degrees, when they mightexpensive time of the year is the wintertime.
perhaps only have to work to move it 4 degreesBecause in 15 or 20 degree weather, the cost of
from 68 to 72 in mid-October. That means that inraising the temperature of a house to 70 degrees is
the summer, the generators are working four timesmuch more expensive than trying to do it from 55 or
as hard to keep your apartment at a constant60. And the primary method of heating houses up
temperature. So the general rule is that the harder anorth comes from Natural Gas consumption. So,
generator has to work, the higher the cost of youragain, the more natural gas that is consumed, the
electricity bill. Seems fairly simple, right?higher the cost of the natural gas because of the
Summer Weather and Your Electricity Billincreased demand. One important thing to consider,
The same principle about electricity bills and the costnot that it matters to a person’s pocket book, is
of cooling your place has other affects on the costthat much like houses down in Houston with gas
of your summer electricity as well. We’veranges, almost all houses up north have a natural gas
already discussed the effort it takes to keep thebill and an electricity bill each month. Up north, it’s
electricity in your home at a constant rate, and howcommon for natural gas directly to be the source of
that relates to the cost/amount of electricity youheat in people’s individual homes, as where in
use. Well, that general idea also applies for the actualTexas natural gas is used as fuel in the power plants
creation of electricity as well. If it takes more energyto create the electricity people use in their homes to
to keep your home cool in the summer, well, thatboth heat and cool as well as turn on the lights. So
extra electricity has to come from somewhere. Thiswhen the winter sets in, it’s the gas bill that
means that the actual generators that create thegoes up, not necessarily their electricity bills. But at
electricity for your home have to work harder (orthe end of the day, we’re still talking about an
more generators will have to be utilized) to make upincrease in everyone’s utility bills in the
for this increased need for energy. So not only arewintertime. And the take away here is simply a
you using more electricity to get the same results,further illustration that the different weather and the
but the costs to generate the electricity for the localseasons have a strong effect on the costs of a
Transmission Distribution Service Provider (companiesperson’s individual electric bills.
like ONCOR and Centerpoint) increase as well.General Weather and Catastrophes and Your
Naturally, that increase in costs will be passed ontoElectricity Bill
the Retail Electricity Provider who sells the electricityIt probably goes without saying, but there are other
to the customer. And that increase will in a measureweather events that can affect your electricity bills,
be passed onto the customer.most of these are a lot more obvious but are still
But lets reference this with a recent real worldworth mentioning. On the largest scale would be
example that happened recently in the Texasweather catastrophes, such as tornadoes and
electricity market. Recently, an electricity generator inhurricanes. Obviously these things, if they disrupt
Texas went offline for an extended period of time.your local power plants or power lines, are going to
Well, this put an extreme amount of strain on thedisrupt your electricity flow. Floods and mudslides,
other generators to keep up with the demand for allvolcanic eruptions, obviously anything that makes a
of the electricity customers in the state of Texas.news broadcast as some kind of weather event is
They generators have to be run constantly. Imaginegoing to inevitably come with electricity disruptions.
driving your car at 80 miles per hour for 24 hoursBut other minor events can also affect things as well.
straight. Eventually, something is going to happen, beIn the north, ice storms can cause tree branches to
it you’ll run out of gas, the car will overheat, orsnap and knock down power lines, or even damage
something inside will break. Now consider that thiselectricity generators, which again will affect
came at a time of peak summer heat and in theelectricity flow. Freezing is less common in the south,
midst of an extremely brutal Texas drought, whichbut flooding happens regularly and has been known
has also been working overtime to make sure thatto cause electricity disruptions as well. Granted, all of
Texas isn’t getting any kind of reprieve fromthe things I’ve listed in this section are in the
the heat. So all things considered, you’re talkingnature of cutting off your electricity, which at the
about a lot of factors that have been puttingend of the month will mean a lower bill, as opposed
extreme stress on all of the generators in Texas,to the main theme of what I’ve been writing
and one finally broke and went offline. So that’sabout, which is ways in which the weather will cause
one less generator to keep up with the sameyour electricity bill to fluctuate. Still, it’s interesting
demand. So the weather and oppressive heat were ato consider just how every facet of the weather
double-edged sword in this instance. The excessivecan affect your electricity bill on a month to month
drought and heat caused the generators to workbasis.