Do you ever feel like your electric bills are totally unpredictable? Do you try to stick within a budget but just don’t know how to budget your fluctuating energy costs? The truth is that electricity costs can often be difficult to predict and control. Fortunately, prepaid energy programs are becoming more common around the globe and have even made their way into the United States.
Salt River Project (SRP), a utilities company servicing the Phoenix metropolitan area, began implementing a prepaid electricity system over ten years ago. The program is basically a pay-as-you-go energy alternative called M-Power. M-Power customers purchase credit on smart cards and upload the credit onto a small box located inside their home. In the Phoenix area, terminals for purchasing energy credit are located in many area grocery stores.
Originally, the M-Power plan was designed for customers with poor credit. The pay-as-you-go system made it possible for these customers to get power without putting any money down. If they owed money, a portion of their debt would be taken each time they purchased credit on their smart card.
Now, more and more people are switching to the M-Power prepaid program for reasons other than bad credit. Prepaid electricity allows people to be more aware of how much they are spending on energy. In addition, SRP prepaid customers can browse the display of their M-Power box inside their home to find information such as the amount of power they are currently using (in kilowatt-hours), how much they spent on energy the previous day, and how much they have spent so far the current day. Customers can also track last months’ energy costs compared to the costs for their current month’s usage.
Being more aware of the amount of power being used each day allows an SRP customer to better monitor and reduce the electricity being used. It also helps customers budget since they are able to make more decisions about how their electricity bills are paid.
Do you think a program like this could help you to save money or budget your electricity costs?
Do you know of another program other than the one described in the Phoenix area?
If so, tell us about it.