The site Power To Choose offers many options, but after the first time through it's pretty straightforward.

I answer the three questions (you can use an old zip code of mine - 76123, to run through it). How much power do you use? (Don't know); 2) Plan type (fixed rate); 3) Contract length (12 - 24 months). There are 3 and 6 months plans but through the year the rates change so you can end up selecting a new plan when rates are higher. I think it's a better use of time to do it just once a year. It took less than a minute to reach 86 results.

Next, when you select view plans, on the far left are tools to reduce this more: I select "do not show pre-paid plans" and "do not show time of use plans" (those evenings or weekends free are more expensive, when you do the math, so I automatically exclude them now.) Choose rating of company, I choose 4 and 5 star companies, eliminating those that have more customer complaints. I don't usually toggle "renewable energy" but I do keep that in mind when I look at the resulting spreadsheet. Refreshing this list, that took less than a minute to bring up, I now have 23 companies.

If you scan down those results you see the big number shows the rate from 1000-2000kWh, what is probably the most typical amount used. I have a printout of my last electric bill that shows me the usage of each month over the last year and I can see that I fall into this zone more than half of the year or less than half of the year. If I have more time in the 500-1000kWh range, then the first number is perhaps more relevant. These rates, offered at this time, are about one and half cents higher. I typically calculate my new company in January, so the rates reflect the lower usage and generally a bit less expensive power costs of the recent autumn weather. But it may simply be that costs have gone up and the rates I see in January will be a bit higher. TXU, at the bottom of this list, is highest cost, and is the default power provider in the area.

I download the spreadsheet, and this is where there is a bit of a glitch, because for some reason it doesn't offer just results, you get everything. So I look at column V for "rating" (I chose rating 4 and 5 stars) and I then had to select on the left each line, one at a time, and delete all of the lesser offerings. Five minutes.

There are columns that I already selected out, such as Prepaid - this shows on all as False, as is Time of Day. Zip code, etc, can all go because they're all the same. Click on the column heading to highlight the entire column, the right click to bring up the dropdown menu from there and select "delete." Other columns can now be expanded out. I want to look at the prices at 500 and 1000kWh, I want to see the cancellation fee, and if you have to be a new customer to take advantage of the new customer plan. There are a few companies I've used in the past that for whatever reason don't appear on this list, and I might pull them up individually to take a look.

I'd hazard a guess that this whole process took under an hour. Averaging the bills I'd say I save $100 or more a month. Since the last time I set this up I opted for a two-year contract, that hour was very well spent.