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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Dear Bay Weekly:

I received a phone call from Spark Energy in February 2008, not at my request, with a suggestion to change to Spark Energy for a lower cost in my purchase of electricity. They assured me that the only difference I would see was a lower bill than I would have received from BGE. I still would only get one electricity bill because you save money by having BGE bill you. BGE would also continue to distribute the cheaper electricity that Spark purchased — always from the cheapest source each month — and service my meter, lines, etc.

Given the positive idea of (and purpose behind) deregulation of electricity providers in the past and my growing electric bills with BGE, I agreed to change electricity suppliers.

The first two months with Spark there was a slightly lower difference from BGE ($.1026 Spark vs $.1086 BGE per kilowatt hours) in charges, though BGE continued to charge me a distribution charge per hour of kilowatt, along with numerous other fees. 

My monthly bills, even with my ongoing cost-saving efforts, continued to climb. To add to the burden of the increasing cost, Spark did not bill me in June 2008 but double-billed for the month of June and July on my July bill. Normally this would have been very apparent, but it is confusing who is billing for what services. I figured that my energy-saving efforts were finally paying off. Instead, it was difficult to pay all at once.

For many months I tried to pay hundreds of dollars in advance of my bill, hoping to keep ahead of the mounting, foreseeable costs. Even that wasn’t working. Finally, I took a closer look at what Spark was charging vs. what BGE was charging over the past 11 months.

I called Spark customer service on February 13. I explained that I had paid more for Spark energy eight out of 11 months. Their rep said that I had agreed to variable rates — which, in my ignorance, I had. As hard as it was to believe, I would have spent less money had I remained with BGE.

I have filed a formal complaint with the Maryland Public Service Commission. I recommend to others who have tried to use the deregulation of Maryland’s electric vendors to their benefit to check what their non-BGE vendors are charging. I am not a happy consumer of BGE’s, but I can’t afford Maryland’s hope for deregulation. It doesn’t appear to be working.

Please consider filing a complaint against your high electric bills with Maryland Public Service Commission at: www.psc.state.md.us.

Department of Corrections

Credit is due to Colburn Images for the photograph of Colonial Players’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses that illustrated Jane Elkin’s Feb. 12 review of the production.