Market price for electricity in Southeast Texas is about 14.5 per kilowatt-hour.
We were able to lock in a 3-year rate contract yesterday for 10.6 per kwh. The rate can't increase even if electricity prices double in the next 2-3 years, which they will.
My advice is to call your energy providers now, and see about extending your current contracts or get on a plan with fixed, low rate for at least the next 2-years if possible. Winter is coming.
If SHTF, you don't want to be paying "market rates". During the Texas Ice Storm earlier this year, some people (without set rates) were being surprised by $4,000 electricity bills. We got the same service, but our entire bill that month was $380. Lock in now.
Holy shit and I thought the $0.077/kWh in Illinois was bad! I'm coming off a previous 1 year contract at $0.064.
Do the same thing for your gas supply if you have that utility, I was paying $0.28/therm in October 2020 and it was already up to $0.53 September 2021 and rose to $0.63 this month. Many of the alternate providers want business so bad they've dropped the early termination fee to $0 so I grabbed a 3 year contract fixed at $0.50/therm knowing I can drop it if prices do eventually go down before then.
I continue to pay one bill to the utility, it's just a line item showing the price they then pay to the alternate provider.
We did find lower rates, but decided to stay with a major company, even if the rate is a bit higher. Fly by night companies tend to do exactly that. After the ice storm, a lot of independent providers were wiped out of the electricity market.
In uncertain times, I'd stay with a more reliable provider, even at slightly higher cost.