A green power company, or not?
Viridian Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and claims to offer alternative green energy power plans at discount prices; they are also known as Viridian Responsible Energy, Viridian Network, LLC, Viridian Energy PA, LLC, Viridian Energy NY, LLC, Viridian Energy MD, LLC, Viridian Energy Ng, LLC. Viridian claims to offer their customers “green power”, however they are simply power brokers and the alleged green power they are selling is actually someone else’s power; this makes the percentages of green power distribution questionable.
Short-term savings
In October 2012 I joined Viridian at a fixed low monthly rate with the anticipation that I would be saving on my electric bills and supporting green energy. It took a bit of time for the switchover, but once I was a customer I did notice an average of a 10%-15% reduction compared to what my usual electric bills were because my price per kilowatt-hour was a couple of cents cheaper than what our local electric company was charging me.
Price increases
Everything seemed to be great until May 2013 rolled along; Viridian’s price per kilowatt-hour jumped up substantially, 3 cents higher than our local electric company to over $0.10 kWh! I was shocked because my electric bill for May was well over $300 (which normally would’ve been just over $200). I figured that it might have something to do with the summer peak season, and my business was keeping me pretty busy so I didn’t have the time to seriously address the issue. Then my bill came for the month of September 2013, and Viridian’s price jumped higher, to over $0.129 kWh, meanwhile our local electric company’s rate was still just over $0.07 kWh. To top it off, we used about 200 kW less than we did in September 2012 but we paid substantially more with Viridian in comparison for September 2013 as well!
Poor customer service
After receiving the latest bill, I called Viridian’s customer service phone number 1-866-663-2508 and I had to listen to music-on-hold for over an hour until I could speak with a human! (Fortunately I had other things to do and I had the portable phone on speaker.) When a woman finally answered the phone I had to prove my identity and pass the other related security hurdles, then we could finally discuss my issue. When I spoke to the woman about the drastic increases on my bill she didn’t offer me any reasons or explanations for the ridiculous rate hikes, she immediately offered me a fixed-rate plan (which I was supposedly already on since signing up). I promptly told her that I wanted to cancel, she reluctantly gave me a cancellation number and told me it would take a couple of billing cycles for the changeover to occur. I was aware of the changeover delay, but I’m hoping at this point that Viridian won’t whack me for $0.15 to $0.20 kWh before I get switched back to the local electric company’s plan!
A lesson learned
I couldn’t believe how Viridian misrepresented the vast savings I would experience while using them! Viridian is supposed to be a wholesale distributor but they actually were charging me much higher rates than the local electric company! Viridian is fraudulent in their practices, not only with their customers but with their associates program as well, and their claims are simply false. All in all, the small amount of money that I saved with Viridian over my first several months didn’t even come close to the amount that they over-billed me for through the summer of 2013, which is utterly ridiculous. I urge all of you to read the fine print and to search for any complaints on any electric company alternatives that claim they will save you a bundle of money over time, they are all bogus!
Too much overhead
Anywhere from 20% to 33% of a green power company’s proceeds go into marketing and overhead, which can mean that 67% or less of your money spent on green energy actually helps the cause. The smaller the utility, the more money they have to pay for marketing and overhead in order to stay in business. For power brokers like Viridian who don’t even own any of their own power generation plants, you are simply paying them to keep their power brokerage in business and likely none of your money is ever helping the green energy initiative! All that said, the money that you spend on supposedly supporting green power could be spent on efficiency upgrades in your home, such as insulating, sealing leaks, and replacing windows.
Bait and switch
I opted for a low fixed rate when I signed up for Viridian Energy, but apparently they only give you a variable rate, which can be dangerous if you are a customer. There’s no limit to how high a variable electric rate can go up in any given month. Apparently companies that offer discount rates will drastically increase over time. Viridian and other power brokers put too much dependency on the wholesale market; so when the market behaves, Viridian can offer a slightly lower rate than the utility default rates, but when the market increases Viridian passes on the extra costs to their customers. I recommend finding a fixed-rate electric plan that will lock in for a set period of time.
Deceptive pricing
Lower electric rates (both variable and fixed rates) can be found by comparing companies ’ offers. Besides the lower rates offered by these other companies, the important thing to note is that most offers are fixed, Viridian ’s offers are variable and can go even higher at any time even if you had signed up for a fixed rate plan. Viridian also advertises that they have “no contracts”. When it comes to buying electricity, it is good to have a contract as it will state the exact rate you will pay; but without a contract you are truly at their mercy where price is concerned.
Government actions
On June 7, 2012, the Maryland Public Service Commission imposed a civil penalty of $60,000 against Viridian Energy PA, LLC related to the company’s advertising and marketing practices. Under Order 84959 the Commission found that Viridian violated Public Utilities Article § 7-507 and Code of Maryland Regulation 20.53.07.07 and 20.53.07.08 by engaging in false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and solicitations related to the savings the consumer would realize as well as their relationship with utility companies. Marketing materials were also distributed claiming that customers did not need to sign a contract when a contract for such services was in fact required. Viridian has paid the assessed penalty, and, “in addition to replacing the ‘no contract’ language with ‘cancel service at any time,’ the company voluntarily terminated its door-to-door marketing program, created ‘Viridian University’ to ensure appropriate and ongoing training and education for its associates, ceased allowing associate-generated marketing materials, and placed an increased focus on third-party verification measures (p. 15, Order No. 84959).”
Pyramid schemes
Viridian Energy markets through direct selling, or multi-level marketing (MLM), by recruiting customers to also become their associates. Viridian promotes the false possibility of financial freedom, and associates have to follow their plan exactly to achieve their financial goals, otherwise they never get any return on investment. This MLM system attracts independent associates who are often not well informed on energy prices and their legal ramifications. In addition, potential associates have to pay Viridian $300 or more per year for the rights to sell Viridian’s services! This tactic isn’t entirely foreign to most pyramid schemes, because it basically makes the associate work harder to try and get their money back and to resell the services at the same time. Associates have to get enough people signed up under them to cover their annual fees before they can even consider making a profit; which forces them to do a hard-sell of this service to every single person they meet, including family and friends.
Renewable Energy Certificates?
When you opt for green energy, it doesn’t actually get piped directly into your home’s electrical system, you are actually paying for the same physical electricity that you have always been getting. The difference is that the money you pay purchases Renewable Energy Certificates that “represent” the green energy you’re paying for. RECs are also known as Renewable Energy Credits, Renewable Electricity Certificates, Tradable Renewable Certificates and Green tags. These tickets are tradable, non-tangible energy commodities that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour MWh of electricity was generated from renewable energy. So, paying for green power is more like donating to a cause than actually receiving the green energy directly, what you are doing is subsidizing the market for renewable energy.
Scams and frauds
Since RECs can be sold separately from the underlying electricity, the possibility for fraud can exist unless the RECs are tracked from their point of creation to their final point of use, and “additionality” tests aren’t thorough enough to prove that your REC’s purchased emission reductions that wouldn’t have happened anyway! When an area like green energy is hot for investors, scamsters understand that and so that’s where they target their scams. For example, when oil prices are high we tend to see more oil and gas scams; when Hurricane Katrina hit we saw scams there as well. Whatever is in the news is what the fraudsters target, and the legitimate stories in the media help them build credibility about the purported investment that they are pitching. In Viridian’s case, how can they claim that they are actually selling sustainable green energy, when in fact they are simply power brokers that don’t own any of their own wind or solar generation facilities and they are simply selling RECs? Furthermore, it’s my understanding that it’s illegal for any third parties to profit off from someone’s electricity bills according to the FTC’s utilities laws, so how are companies like Viridian getting away with it?
Political corruption
Obviously, we know that renewable energy and be generated from various natural resources, that is the truth. The problem is the truth has been corrupted by politics. Green energy has been more of a fad, or a green bubble, than an effective way to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Government incentives are purposely geared to support less effective sources of green energy over sources that have much less overhead. In turn, politicians earn plenty of positive public approval by supposedly supporting green energy in their areas, build some solar here or a wind tower there and voters will love you. Consumers have to pay more for green energy, which supposedly helps the initiatives, but the extra money they spend is squandered within the system and isn’t easy to track. And finally, should energy brokers even exist? What is their real purpose, other than to buy power at bulk discount rates and resell it as “green” power to consumers at a much higher rate, and why is this type of marketing even legal?
, Beware of Viridian and other green energy providers www.ozeldersin.com bitirme tezi,ödev,proje dönem ödevi