Energy Procurement & Brokering
Alden Energy Consulting has negotiated electricity and natural gas contracts for Texas commercial businesses since 2011.
We don't just find you a rate — we help you decide when to lock one in.
You're already paying for energy.
The question is whether you're paying the right price at the right time.
What This Service Is
Energy procurement is the process of contracting for your electricity and natural gas supply at a fixed or structured rate, rather than defaulting to whatever your utility or a retail rep puts in front of you. In deregulated markets like Texas (ERCOT), you have a choice of supplier and contract structure — and that choice has real dollar consequences.
Many businesses renew on autopilot: their contract expires, someone calls with a number, they sign. That approach leaves significant savings on the table — not because the rate was bad in isolation, but because it ignored where the market actually was at the time.
We do it differently.
What Alden Brings to the Table
A track record you can actually see.
Since June 2011, we've tracked every fixed-rate contract we've executed. We update our long-term average regularly and are happy to share exactly where it stands — and how it compares to where the market was at the time of each deal. Ask us for the current number.
Market context, not just quotes.
We monitor wholesale power pricing and natural gas futures continuously. In Texas, electricity pricing is 85–90% correlated with natural gas futures — which means the key to a good fixed electricity contract is understanding where gas is headed, not just which supplier sent the lowest number today. We believe there are only about a dozen genuinely favorable days in a given year to lock fixed pricing. Most days aren't one of them.
An independent benchmark.
We use an independent, third-party pricing model to benchmark every deal — think of it as a Kelley Blue Book for electricity pricing. Before you make any decision, you'll see exactly where current pricing sits relative to what the market should be delivering for your load profile, with a high, best, and low estimate. It's a check-and-balance that most brokers don't offer and that clients find invaluable — especially those who reasonably wonder, "how do I know this is actually a good price?"
Four variations of "fixed pricing."
Most customers don't know this, but there are four standard variations of what can legally be marketed as "fixed pricing" in Texas — and they're not equivalent. Understanding which one you're being quoted, and whether it matches what you're currently being billed on, is something we verify before every deal. Suppliers aren't required to explain the difference. We are.
We work with approximately a dozen pre-vetted retail energy providers out of nearly a couple hundred currently operating in Texas. We represent you at all points throughout that process — not the supplier.
Two Seasonal Windows
Timing matters more than most people realize, and there are predictable patterns worth knowing. While heat waves and polar vortexes in other parts of the United States can certainly make a difference, it’s often how the weather in Texas plays out that decides which direction prices are headed.
Window #2 - Mid-February to mid-March.
When it becomes clear from forecast models that winter is over, natural gas traders tend to sell off, pulling pricing down. It’s important to note that this window isn't guaranteed, but when it occurs it can produce some of the lowest pricing of the calendar year.
Once (North) Texas hits its first 90-degree day — typically around March 15 — this window closes, and pricing almost always rises 5–15% through spring and early summer in anticipation of peak summer demand. There is rarely a meaningful dip between mid-March and late June. We'll tell you where we are in that cycle every time we're in contact. If it's not a good time to move, we'll say so.
Window #1 - Late September to mid-November.
The wind down of hurricane season typically brings a period of lower volatility in natural gas and electricity futures. For those with a start date the following June, this is often the best opportunity of the year to evaluate and lock fixed pricing.
Note that this window closes as soon as the threat of a freeze arrives in North Texas, often the week prior to Thanksgiving most years.
Why is the weather in Texas so important to energy pricing?
Many, but not all, individuals that trade natural gas and electricity futures professionally tend to live in Texas - either in Dallas - Fort Worth or Houston and so their sense of where the market might be headed can often be dictated by what’s occurring in their own environment.
How Compensation Works
In general, we are compensated by splitting the sales commission with the inside sales group of the winning retail energy provider and only if we are able to find you a great option.
That figure is built into the fixed price — you don't pay us directly and we don't invoice you separately. We don't require additional agreements as a condition of working together. The onus is on us to provide competitive pricing, sound strategy, as well as great service. We're also there for any support that may arise during the course of your agreement, and we can almost always reach a resolution faster than you could navigating a supplier on your own.
Basic Framework of Next Steps
Step 1: Conversation
No paperwork, no commitment. We talk through your situation, your contract history, and what matters most to you.
Step 2: Letter of Authorization (LOA)
If it makes sense to move forward, we'll ask you to sign a simple LOA — a standard, non-obligatory document required under TX PUC rules that allows us to pull your historical usage data directly from your utility. This is what lets us do a real analysis.
Step 3: Load Profile Analysis & Benchmark Report
We review your usage history across all meters and run your load profile through both internal models, as well as our independent pricing benchmark so you can see where current pricing sits relative to historical ranges — before we go to market.
Step 4: Market Assessment We assess where current pricing sits in the context of the seasonal calendar, wholesale trends, and your contract timeline. We'll give you our honest read.
Step 5: Supplier Solicitation & Presentation We go to market on your behalf — gathering bids from multiple retail energy providers on the same day (critical, since most electricity bids are only valid on the day they're presented) and presenting them in plain language with our recommendation.
Step 6: You Decide We tell you what we see. You decide what to do.
Frequently Asked Questions - Process
How working with Alden different from just calling a supplier directly?
When you call a supplier, you get one offer from one company with no market context. Often times, you are talking with an agent of their outsourced sales department. We represent multiple pre-vetted suppliers simultaneously, which creates competition. More importantly, we bring 15 years of executed pricing data, an independent third-party benchmark, and a read on where the market sits seasonally to every conversation. You're not just picking the lowest number on a page — you're making an informed decision about whether now is actually a good time to lock in.
At a more structural level, it comes down to auction theory. The competition that’s created us taking this to market versus you is immediate. That’s simply because the representative with whom we work with daily knows that your deal is automatically being priced with at least 8-10 other retail energy providers. If this deal is brought by you to them, they know that at best, you’d be lucky to get those 2 or 3 other bids and chances are, they can guess with precision whom their competition is. And no matter how big of a customer you think you are, your deal is a one time transaction, whereas we have a pool of other deals and are a going concern day in and day out.
And unlike your cable or other service provider, you need to hit a pretty high threshold before the loss of your business might be considered churn.
inherent to forcing everyone involved to be low enough on their margins for consideration.
If suppliers were consistent on margin levels with their price offers and if numbers could be held for longer than a day, there would be less of a reason for us to exist in the market. The reality is, they aren’t and part of the market design and industry in general operates continuously on this designed obfuscation. Further, it can be a difficult task for even the most seasoned of procurement teams to get more than 2 or 3 bids on the same day by going directly to a retail energy provider and then have the ability to quickly assess them in an apples to apples
What are the four main variations of "fixed pricing" in Texas?
There are four standard contract structures that can legally be called "fixed pricing" in Texas, primarily differing in how certain cost components — congestion, line losses, ancillary services — are handled, whether bundled into the fixed rate or passed through at cost. Most customers aren't aware of the difference, and most customer protections under PUC rules disappear once your peak demand exceeds 50 kW. We verify what structure you're currently on and price apples-to-apples before presenting bids.
They include:
(1) Fixed pricing, energy only - all other line item components are passed through at cost.
(2) Fixed pricing, energy and line losses static - all other line item components are passed through at cost.
(3) Fixed pricing, energy, ancillary services and line losses static - basis/nodal/congestion/hub to load zone passed though at cost
(4) Fixed pricing, all line items included
Other minor variations can occur too, but these tend to be the main ones used. As a customer, you are responsible for paying all of the line items regardless of how they are packaged and sold. Note that it’s easy to have a full $5 MWh ($0.005 kWh) difference between variation #1 and #3 or #4, so it’s critical to understand what you are looking at, especially if you attempt to negotiate this on your own.
How far in advance should we start looking?
We recommend starting to monitor pricing at least 12 months before your contract expiration. It takes time to understand the market and to catch a favorable window — dips can take weeks or months to develop and don't always appear on a schedule. Waiting until 2–3 months before expiration is the equivalent of locking at whatever the market happens to be doing right then, which is rarely optimal for those seeking fixed pricing and budget certainty.
Do you work with businesses outside of Texas?
Texas and the ERCOT market is our primary focus. We can assist commercial customers in other deregulated states — reach out and we'll let you know quickly whether we can add value in your market.
What size businesses do you work with?
We work best with commercial businesses whose energy spend is significant enough to warrant professional management but who don't have a dedicated in-house energy team. In terms of actual figures, that may look like a full range of anywhere from 250 - 25,000 MWhs annually, but most clients tend to fall in the 500 - 5000 MWh / year range.
Engagement matters too — a client who is willing to monitor the market and act when the time is right will consistently get better outcomes than one who isn't, regardless of spend size.
How long does the process take?
From initial conversation to executable pricing, typically one to two weeks depending on how quickly we receive your usage history from the utility. Once pricing is in hand, how long you take to decide is entirely up to you. We have the ability to refresh pricing
