Ho often do you change your energy supplier? I change the gass and electric every couple of years, using Uswitch to find a new cheaper tarrif each time mine goes up. The only real annoyance is being stuck with our water supplier who are notoriously awful and overcharge. Do you chase savings by trying to get the best tarrif or is it too much hassle?
You are lucky to have the option to change your fuel supplier. Over here ,we are also stuck with the water supplier because they own the pipes so there is no other choice. Besides, the water supplier is contracted by the government so we cannot question it. With the gas, we are fortunate to use the LPG tank that we order for delivery. However, the prices are standard for almost all dealers so we just try to stick with our present gas supplier because they are prompt with their delivery.
I never change it since we have no other options. I think there is only one energy supplier and one water supplier for the entire city. Those two suppliers are the ones that automatically send the bills in all the houses in a certain day. They raise the prices or lower them when ever they feel the government is taking advantage of them.
There is only one electricity supplier in my country, their prizes are a little bit high but they have favourable tarrifs that you can opt for. Gas suppliers are many but I've always used one of them for being cheap and quality services. I don't rely much on external water supplies, when I do, I don't rely on one supplier since they vary with prizes.
In our country Government is the sole distributor of electricity and that is why we are left no other option. With regard to cooking gas there are many players here but the issue is that there are a lot paper works and legal formalities to get a new gas connection. The number of LPG cylinders per year is also limited to each house. I think it is good that electricity is still owned and managed directly by Government. Otherwise there would be drastic hike in electricity charges here. There were some moves to privatize electricity distribution which could not take off due to protest from public.
We do not have an option here to change the service providers as these are Government's monopoly. We do not have any private supplier of electricity and water either. These services are provided to the common people in a much subsidized price which being the prime reason of not having any private counterpart in the market.
This is a sore point with me at the moment. I recently changed mine and there was some dispute between the supplier I was leaving and the one I joined. I was paying both suppliers a monthly fee for gas and electricty and neither one would back down each saying it was the other one's fault that the changeover was not smooth. Endless calls later it was sorted but it reminds me of why I don't change very often as I had a similar problem before.
We cannot change the electricity supplier, because all over the country only one corporation deals with electricity supplier. There is no option of fuel (gas) supplier because all over the country there is only one fuel supplier. Government has monopoly over electricity and fued supply. In the place where I live, we have a well in our backyard, and we don't have to pay for water.
Here in our case, we have a government controlled water provider. We just pay our used water or water consumption based on the meter reading. However, for drinking water, we may have the option to buy from a private water purifier-seller. For gas, we don't have to worry for we don't have a car. But for our cooking needs, we have to use a charcoal which its sack is too costly. Or we have to resort to a pieces of woods for cooking. However, my wife suggested that those things are too laborsome, to use an LPG. It is indeed very costly but yet there is a great saving on time and efforts.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with one provider each for electricity and tap water. There are other cooperatives providing electricity service in other provinces but I doubt if their fees are any cheaper. I like it that they don't charge penalties at all for late payment so I usually always push the payment to the date before the next reading. The water concessionaire in my town is in a partnership with the local government. It used to be run solely by the local government but by some magic, the management was transferred to a private company owned by one of the biggest developers in our country. What I don't like about them is their practice of pegging a minimum monthly consumption. We need to pay for the cost of at least 10 cubic meter of water each month though the actual consumption may be lower like in our case. In addition, they charge 10% penalty if the bill is not paid within the due date. As for the fees, they're charging even higher than nearby cities and towns that have fully private concessionaires. Local government in my town sucks and it will continue so long as people continue to vote for traditional politicians and not allow new blood to take over. As for LPG, there are many options, actually, but my supplier offers the lowest price - 15% lower than other suppliers which I've proven time and again. They've been my gas supplier for more than four years and it's been smooth sailing.
This is an interesting question. It's a question which I would love to be able to answer to but unfortunately, I am not in a position to reply to. In my country, there are more than one producers of electricity but only one distributor. All the producers sell the power that they produce to the sole distributor whom also produces power. Therefore, there is a monopoly on the distribution side. I wish that there were other distributors which would probably allow for more favorable rates to the consumers.
