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Since the passing of the Natural Gas Competition and Deregulation Act of 1997, Georgia residents have been able to choose between three different types of GA gas companies. They can buy it from a private local distribution company, a municipal gas distributor, or from a natural gas marketer like MXEnergy.
Currently, there are only 10 total natural gas marketers certified to resell natural gas on Atlanta Gas Light Company’s pipe system. MXEnergy is one of these marketers. The PSC regulates pricing to some extent. Within that regulation, to the public are based on the market price of natural gas at any given time period.
This is because gas is produced from a variety of sources. Some of these include oil fields, coal, and even natural gas reservoirs trapped underground. This gas is stored underground and transferred to users the AGLC network of pipes. GA gas companies sell the product in units called therms. A therm is the equivalent of 1,000 British Thermal Units.
Due to the high demand for fossil fuels of any kind, natural gas has always been a very volatile marketplace. Market prices fluctuate for any number of reasons. Supply and demand, extraction methods, and general availability in any given part of Georgia all play a role in determining the cost of natural gas per therm.
Accordingly GA gas companies strive to competitively offer their customers the best possible rates in the face of a constantly changing marketplace. This is not as easy as it sounds. Like any business, local distributors, municipalities, and marketers must stay in business. At the same time, they want to offer their customers the best savings and improve the general quality of life in the process.
The basic strategy that all GA gas companies follow is to offer choices between fixed rate plans and variable rate plans. On a fixed rate plan, you pay the same amount of money per therm regardless of what the market is doing. On a variable rate plan, you may pay considerably less than a fixed rate plan, but you may also pay a great deal more if the market suddenly becomes volatile.
MXEnergy is unique among marketers in that it allows customers on a variable rate plan to switch to a 6 month or 12 fixed rate plan at any given time without penalty. Variable rate plans are month to month and can be changed or cancelled without penalty at any time.
Fixed rate plans are available with price protection to help customers with their budgets. Customers also have the option of switching to budget billing at any time.
According to many published statistics, most MXEnergy gas customers in Georgia have paid less on the average less than customers in relationship with other GA gas companies. Much of this is due to our pricing, but much of it as well is due to the fact that our customer service communicates straightforwardly and clearly with our customers.
At the end of the day, people always know what they are getting into with us, and they make better, more informed decisions on their natural gas choices based on the information we provide them.
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