HOUSTON -- Reliant Energy is offering some of its customers, who are locked into a contract with a high rate, a chance to lower their energy bill.
Betty Joann Pampell lives at Pinemont Apartments, a complex for seniors in northwest Houston. At 67 years of age, she doesn't see as well as she used to, but her eyes weren't lying when she recently noticed her electric bill had more than doubled.
I went from a $117 to an almost $400 light bill, she says. When you don't get much money, that's kind of high.
Pampell and her husband live on a fixed income, and it turns out they aren't alone. Several other residents in the complex have been paying the same rate, which prompted the complex manager to contact State Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston.
I called Reliant, and I asked Why do you have people who are paying 20 cents per kilowatt hour?' says Hochberg. And isn't there something you can do?
Turns out, there was. Hochberg says the Pampells were among 6,000 Reliant customers that had locked into a two-year contract with Reliant when natural gas prices peaked in 2008 after Hurricane Ike.
Some of them were low-income customers, so we've reached out to those customers to let them know we have some lower price plans available for them, says Reliant Energy spokesperson Pat Hammond.
Pampell is now paying 12.8 cents per kilowatt hour, which has cut her power bill nearly in half.
The offer isn't just being extended to low-income customers, but to anyone who entered a contract with Reliant Energy when the market was at its peak in 2008. The energy giant is also waiving the nearly $300 cancellation fee for those same customers.
