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3 On Your Side: Shopping For Electricity

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Are you paying more for electricity than you have to? Well did you know that you can switch to save? In Pennsylvania, thousands of people have changed their electricity provider since the start of the year.

Electricity, it lights up your life, powers our appliances and turns on your electronics. The bill can often leave customers with sticker shock. But beginning this year PECO Energy customers can make a change. "My mother-in-law had brought it to my attention," says PECO customer April Dubin. Customers like April can now shop around for power, choosing the company that generates her electricity. She says, "They can switch and I think it's just great."

Electricity is billed based on kilowatt hour. PECO's current price is 9.92 cents per kilowatt hour. Looking to beat that rate, April visited PAPowerSwitch.com, a website set up by the state to help customers price compare. According to April, "You can just scroll down the page and you can actually review the rates, and the name of the company, and there is a link that you can click on that will take you right to the company's website."

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On PAPowerSwitch.com she found Spark Energy, one of 22 companies competing for her business. Spark offers a fixed rate of 8.93 cents per kilowatt hour, a penny less than PECO. Based on her usage, April, who lives in a four-bedroom house with her husband and two kids, can save about 9 dollars a month, or $108 a year.

Cassandra Oryl with Spark Energy says, "Now that there is competition, people can offer different prices and you can get a great deal." When comparison shopping, be sure to see if the rate your considering is fixed or if it's variable and can change. Be wary of signing any contracts that have termination fees.

PECO says 174 thousand customers have switched or are in the process of changing over to another provider....but they'll still be dealing with PECO. Cathy Engel of PECO says, "We are the poles and wires company. No matter whom you purchase your electricity from, we will continue to deliver it to you. We will handle the billing, and they won't experience any service related changes because of their shopping."

It's important to point out that customers aren't obligated to switch. If you're happy with your rate you don't have to do anything. But it's estimated that customers who shop around can save ten percent on their electricity costs.

To shop around for electricity providers in your state visit the links below:

Pennsylvania: http://www.papowerswitch.com

New Jersey: http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/commercial/shopping.html

Delaware: http://depsc.delaware.gov/electric.shtml#consumer

Reported By Jim Donovan, CBS 3

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