Find Out How Much Fee Is Built Into Your Energy Price

Colette Kenney, P.Eng.

Founder, Baseline Energy
Director, Energy Solutions, Energy Associates International

Baseline Energy is a program within Energy Associates International. We advise Alberta commercial and industrial buyers on energy procurement. We do not sell electricity or natural gas, and we are not owned by anyone who does.

The decoder uses the same market data we use for client work.

The people behind the decoder

The decoder was built by the same people who do our client procurement work, using the same market data. It is not a marketing tool with numbers bolted on.

Colette Kenney, P.Eng.

Founder, Baseline Energy · Director, Energy Solutions, EAI

Colette has spent more than twenty years in Alberta energy, from oil and gas engineering to commercial procurement. She advises commercial and industrial buyers on procurement, contract strategy and negotiation. She founded Baseline Energy and is Director, Energy Solutions at EAI. She built the decoder after years of watching businesses sign prices they had no way to check.

Sarah Gibbons

Senior Energy Analyst

Sarah analyses wholesale electricity and natural gas markets — forward curves, supply and demand fundamentals, and the regulatory drivers behind them. She also runs tariff analysis and rate optimisation for regulated customers. The forward curve data behind the decoder's benchmark is the data she works in every day.

Both are part of Energy Associates International, an independent advisory firm. We are paid by the businesses we advise, never by the retailers we negotiate with.

What the decoder actually measures

Your energy price is not one number. It contains the wholesale cost of the energy itself, an adjustment for how evenly your business uses it — hour to hour for electricity, season to season for natural gas — and a fee. The fee is the part nobody shows you, and it is the part the decoder isolates.

You enter what is on your paperwork

The date you signed or were quoted, the term start and end dates, the price, and your annual volume. A contract signed two years ago and a quote that arrived this morning are read the same way.

We establish a mid-market benchmark

Using Alberta wholesale trading market data for your exact contract term, on the exact day you signed or were quoted. Not today's price, and not an average.

The difference is the fee

We measure the gap between that mid-market benchmark and the price on your paperwork, then show you what it costs per year on your own volume.

What that fee costs

Between 50 and 70 per cent of your energy bill is regulated — delivery, transmission, riders. Nobody can change it. The fee sits in the other part, the energy portion, and it is charged on every unit you buy for every year of the term. These two came out of Alberta portfolio reviews.

$7,030

a year, on 913 MWh

An 11-site Alberta retailer. The fee inside the power contract was $7.70/MWh above a competitive one, measured against the wholesale market on the day the contract was priced. Over a three-year term.

$45,573

a year, on 4,128 MWh

A managed commercial property. The fee inside the power contract was $11.04/MWh above a competitive fee — found on paperwork the owner had already signed.

Both figures are what the account pays above a competitive fee, not the whole fee it carries. They are amounts identified, not amounts saved — neither contract has been renegotiated. Individual results vary with contract terms, usage and market conditions.

Three possible results

Your price is made of two things: where the Alberta market was on the day you signed, and the fee added on top of it. The decoder measures the fee, because that part is already sitting in the contract or supplier quote you are holding and takes about three minutes to find. Whether you signed at a good moment in the market is the second question. It can cost more than the fee, and it is the one we work out with you afterwards.

Fair

Your fee is within the competitive range.

You are being charged about what a competitive advisor would charge on an account your size. Nothing to fix.

Overcharging

Your fee is above the competitive range.

The fee in your price is larger than it needs to be. We show you how much, per year.

Way Overcharging

Your fee is well above the competitive range.

A substantial amount of your energy spend is fee. Worth acting on before your next renewal.

The timing gap

Most contracts are renewed close to expiry, whether or not it’s a good time to buy. We call this the ‘timing gap.’ For a 2,000 MWh account, locking in just $10/MWh too high costs $60,000 over three years. That’s separate from any energy management fees.

Both affect what you pay, and the timing gap can potentially cost more than the fee. The difference is that the fee is already sitting in the contract or quote you have in your hand, so you can find out what it is in about three minutes. Start with the fee. Timing is the conversation we have next.

Who this is for

The decoder is built for Alberta businesses buying energy on a commercial contract, not for households on a regulated rate.

You hold, or have been quoted, a commercial electricity or natural gas contract in Alberta
You are the person who signs, or who advises the person who signs
You have the contract or quote in front of you, or can get a copy
You use at least 250 MWh (250,000 kWh) of electricity, or 2,500 GJ of natural gas, a year

Not sure what your annual consumption is? Email us an energy bill from the last three months and we will estimate it for you.

Don’t have the contract? Call the phone number on your energy invoice and give them the account number printed on that same invoice. Your retailer will send you a copy of the contract you signed.

Transparent fees. Independent procurement. Market intelligence.

Energy Associates International has managed more than $3 billion in electricity and natural gas contracts since 2004. We are paid by the businesses we advise, never by the retailers we negotiate with.

That independence is the whole reason this tool can exist. A broker cannot publish a tool that measures broker fees.

Questions

What does it cost?

Nothing. There is no paid tier, and the result is yours whether or not you ever speak to us.

I can't find my contract. Can I still use the decoder?

Call the phone number on your energy invoice and give them the account number printed on that same invoice. Your retailer will send you a copy of the contract you signed.

Where does the market data come from?

Alberta wholesale forward curves for power and natural gas, recorded weekly. We look up the curve as it stood on the date your contract or quote was dated, for your specific term, rather than comparing against today's market.

Does a result above the competitive range mean I was cheated?

No. A fee is legitimate — somebody did work to put your contract together. The decoder tells you how large that fee is compared with a competitive fee for an Alberta account your size, which is information you currently have no way of getting.

Will you call me?

We ask for a phone number so we can walk you through your result if the numbers raise questions, which they often do. What we will not do is pass your details to a retailer or a broker.

What happens to my contract details?

They are used to run your analysis and are not shared with suppliers. Our Privacy Notice sets out exactly what is collected and why.

Find out how much fee is built into your energy price