Questions

Regardless of when your current contract ends, like any trading market, the sooner we can get started the better the likelihood of your results. We strongly recommend all customers take advantage of our complimentary, daily price monitoring service starting at least one year before their current contract is due to expire.

What appears to be the lowest quote can very often turn into the highest cost. Contract differences resulting in additional costs (called “pass throughs”) charges for variances in usage compared to suppliers’ original forecasts or early termination charges for dropping accounts can all result in steep charges if not properly negotiated. The devil is truly in the details with supply agreements.

A Kilowatt Hour (abbreviated as kWh) is the standard unit of measuring electricity consumption. More specifically, it is a measure of electrical energy equivalent to the consumption of one thousand watts per hour (1000 kWh = 1 MegaWatt Hour (MWH). When suppliers price out your load, they take many factors into consideration. The first factor is your annual usage, measured in kWhs. Similarly, for Natural Gas, units are measured in Dekatherms. Suppliers request your usage data from the utilities in order to accurately quote your facility. The cost involved for requesting usage from the utility is paid by suppliers. This is the industry standard for bidding for your business, whether they are awarded it or not.

The majority of commercial contracts suppliers offer do carry some form of an early termination fee associated with them. That is because when you sign an agreement, the supplier is going out to the market that day to buy a forecasted amount of power on the futures market on your behalf. We advise all customers to contact us before breaking any agreement early to verify what penalties will be assessed. We also work with customers to “stagger end dates” in agreements when the closure of some facilities/locations is known in advance. A few suppliers also have something called an “add/delete” feature. For a modest premium, customers can add or drop accounts equivalent to a certain percentage of their entire load at either the same rate they secured in the initial agreement (for “adds”) or without paying an early termination fee (for “drops”.) This contractual provision is especially useful for franchises, chains, property management firms, municipalities and businesses who are growing or selling off assets.

Although your natural gas and/or electricity supply will be coming from a new source, your local utility/distribution company (“utility”) will continue to ensure the consistent delivery of the energy to your facility. You should call them directly in an outage.

No, there will never be a service disruption when changing suppliers. In the worst case scenario, your service would “drop back” to default service by the utility.

This depends on which supplier KOBIONA aligns you with and what procurement approach you choose. Block and index and strategies with certain supply elements passed through require the supplier to bill you directly. If you choose a fully-fixed price, “rate ready” billing is available in most states. That means you’d receive one monthly bill for each account with both transmission and delivery (“T&D”) as well as supply charges (matching the rate you locked in your agreement).

KOBIONA is an agent of the customer in negotiations for electricity generation rates, and is not an agent of the supplier. KOBIONA collects its fees from customers which, for the convenience of the customers, are collected by the supplier and then passed-through to KOBIONA. Specifically, the supplier provides rates to KOBIONA, then KOBIONA includes its fee in the rate offered to the customer.