service response time.

[kbs2244]

I have a question for somebody in the power company service area.

I am in north Illinois.
Com Ed country.

Had a fellow come by the other day from on of those bulk buyers/resellers.
Good guy, he knew his product, but he couldn’t answer the one question I have had about switching to one of those programs.

My concern is emergency service response time.
Would someone not having Com Ed as the delivery company put them lower on the response list than someone who does?

 

[Grumpy365]

I have no idea how it works in other states, but in Texas it doesnt matter who you buy your power from it is still serviced by the company that owns the grid.

In our area Reliant owns the lines. You can buy the power from Hugo's Taco Truck and Power, but Reliant still sets the meter, and services the wires.

You send your check to Hugo, and you may even schedule your service thru Hugo, but he doesn't own any trucks, or tools.
(well he may own a taco truck, but that is not relevant to the discussion)

 

[BigGMC]

Hugo's taco are the best!

We have a door-to-door type energy reseller out my way (NY) - Ambit energy. Not really door-to-door, more like the Amway business model - instead of just being a "customer", you can become an "owner" (I forget thier terminology) of thier company - and that's where you can supposidly make money. Of course you have to pitch this plan to every person you come in contact with. You'd make money if that person buys into the program (becomes an owner, or whatever its called).

Thing is, they (Ambit Energy) claims to save you money every month because you're not paying the greedy power company (that's how it was actually pitched to me - unfortunatly the guy didn't know I worked for the POCO). How much would I save - a whopping 1-2%. WHOA! Hold the phone! What a deal! I can now deal with two seperate entities (my POCO and this AMbit group) and save 1-2 DOLLARS a month.

He didn't understand why I wasn't all that excited.

Anyway, to get back on point. kbs2244 - you may get signed up with one of these ESCO's (energy service companies), but every one else down/upstream from you might still have ComEd. The POCO isnt going to single out or leave one customer in the dark - they're gonna pick up the whole circuit as fast as they can. Anymore, the Public Service Commission keeps a very close watch on POCO's outage hours and will fine the utility if they dont meet certain standards/minimums.

 

[kbs2244]

Thanks guys.
I hadn’t thought about their response time being monitored.
It may be a non problem.
All around me it is underground wires.
I don’t even know where my local transformer station is.