What Is a Price Lock Program?

Rather than locking in a single fixed rate for your entire contract at signing, some supply contracts allow you to purchase your electricity in stages — locking in smaller portions of your expected usage at different points throughout the term. This approach is sometimes called dollar-cost averaging, and it can help smooth out the effect of market timing on your rate, since you're not betting your entire contract on a single day's price.

How It Works

• Price locks are typically expressed as a percentage of your forecasted usage, not a fixed volume.

• You — with our guidance — can choose to lock in prices at signing, or wait and lock portions later during the contract term based on market conditions.

• Locks generally follow your load shape, meaning the volume you're locking adjusts to match how you actually use electricity throughout the year, rather than a flat number.

• Most programs allow multiple locks throughout the term — often several times per month — with a minimum lock size (commonly around 20% of forecasted usage) and a cap of locking up to 100% of your expected monthly volume.

• Each price lock typically shows up as its own line item on your bill, so you can see exactly what you locked, and when.

Common Structures

• Dollar-Cost Averaging — Choose a contract term (commonly 12, 24, or 36 months, though terms can run shorter or longer) and lock in any percentage of your monthly volume over time, rather than all at once.

• Blended Purchase — Combine locked percentages across different contract terms (for example, part 12-month pricing, part 24-month pricing) to balance rate stability with flexibility.

What Else to Know

• Capacity, transmission, and other utility-assessed charges are usually passed through separately based on your actual usage, rather than built into the locked energy price. These charges can be locked in as part of a structure like this, but it's generally not advisable — it's worth confirming exactly what's locked and what isn't before you sign anything.

• Programs like this sometimes include added flexibility for adding or removing facilities within a set percentage of your contracted volume without triggering an early termination fee.

• Extended payment terms and small renewable energy credit (REC) allocations are sometimes built into these structures as well.