Are electricity prices fixed?
Most homeowners and businesses pay their local utility the established rates for electricity without looking at options.
That isn’t a surprise. Until recently, there hasn’t been many other options. Your utility tells you what they charge and you pay it, or use candles and an icebox. All joking aside, you haven’t had options, and now you do. A Power Purchase
Agreement (PPA) is exactly what it sounds like. You agree to purchase most of your power from a company that is not your local utility. Why would you want to buy your electricity from someone else? It’s cheaper. Yes, there are huge environmental benefits of buying energy from a solar power company, but for most people it comes down to saving the green (cash money that is).
How much did it cost to fill up your car 15 years ago? How much was your electricity 15 years ago? It has gone up a bit since then hasn’t it? If 15 years ago you were offered the opportunity to buy gasoline at a cheaper rate than was being charged at the pump, would you have done it? What if that offer included buying gas for the next 25 years at that fixed low price? Would you like to still pay $1.80 for gas? Don’t answer that, we all know the answer! Prices go up. Gas, electricity, food, baseball tickets, historically they all go up over time. But now your electricity doesn’t have to. A good PPA gives you the option to fix your utility rate for years. Do we even want to think about how much it will cost to fill up our cars in 15 years? No, but you can know exactly what rate you will pay to power your home. Right now, and years into the future, you can pay less than you are currently paying your local utility, by simply agreeing to it.
There are many factors that make solar power cheaper, but a main reason is efficiency. Some solar companies, like Zing Solar, produce electricity on your roof using solar panels and sell the electricity to you at a lower rate than you pay SDG&E to produce and transmit it from a power plant to your home. Think of this as having a solar powered micro utility on your property that sells electricity to you or your business, on the cheap. Compared to a giant utility, producing electricity on your roof is drastically more efficient and affordable. You get those savings passed on to you with a PPA.
Lets be clear. The PPA is not a secret that was just whispered in your ear. It is one of the most popular ways to reduce monthly electric bills. You have probably heard about it, but weren’t really listening. It sounds too easy and too good to be true. In this case, the truth is easy. You agree to let Zing Solar put solar panels on your roof at their expense and you buy the power from them at a cut rate, problem solved!
Want to be your own solar powered micro utility and not pay anyone for your power? Buying solar panels is also a great option. It takes a little bit of cash or credit up front, but it can pay off in the long run.
Which option is best for you? Come down to the Norman Park Senior Center on June 9 to learn more. There is going to be a seminar covering your options that starts at 7 p.m. We haven’t even covered some of the best parts of the PPA in this article, but we will on June 9. If you are not familiar with the rec center, the address is 270 F St., Chula Vista.
If you don’t want to wait to learn more, call us at (888) 244-0231 and we will answer all of your questions. At Zing Solar, energy is made easy. www.zingsolar.com.
