By: Tim Kays
At their February 11 meeting, members of the West Unity Village Council, by a 4-1 margin, agreed to join the Williams County consortium for the negotiation of energy aggregation rates.
It is a common practice for businesses to offer ‘bulk discounts’ to customers for larger purchases. For example, an item offered for $1.00 apiece might be offered at $95.00 for the purchase of 100. Energy aggregation works the same way.
Aggregation is when a group of companies or local institutions partner together to negotiate rates and buy energy from developers at smaller volumes, while retaining the economic advantages of a high-volume purchase.
Governmental energy aggregation is an example of such a high-volume purchase. A result of deregulation where consumers are allowed to pick and choose their energy providers, governmental energy aggregation is a proven method for communities to help their constituents hold down energy costs.
Council heard from Amy Hoffman of Palmer Energy referencing the decision. The village has been negotiating on its own, but Palmer suggested the option of joining in with the County. Palmer is out of Toledo, and is the energy consultant for the OML (Ohio Municipal League), as well as the CCAO (County Commissioners Association of Ohio).
“You have a contract in place for your streetlights,” Hoffman said. “It just started in August; it will end in May of 2023. That’s with Dynegy as a supplier, and the rate per kilowatt hour is 0.0362. The facilities contract just started last May, and it will end May of 2023 as well.”
“That’s with Dynegy, and that’s a rate of 0.0428. That’s all the facilities that the village owns, and those are all on the contract. And again to reiterate with the facilities, we went out and did an RFP (Request for Proposal) to multiple suppliers to get the most competitive pricing.”
“The supplier that won it was Dynegy. The main focus tonight is the electric aggregation. You’re currently in a contract that’s been going on for seven years, a long term contract with Energy Harbor.”
Until a few years ago, First Energy Solutions was the only supplier in the area that was doing aggregation. “So all of us,” Hoffman said, “…including Toledo, were all in this electric aggregation of 4% savings for small commercial 6% savings for the residential, and that’s off the price of the utility.”
“So wherever Edison was, you were saving 4%. Nothing great, but that’s all that was out there for time. Fast forward, your contract is ending, and your next contract we’re going to assist you with. We go out and do an RFP, the contracts are anywhere from two to three years, typically. no early termination fees for the residents, and it’s a fixed rate.”
Hoffman then offered two options for the Council to consider. “A decision by the Village Council needs to be made on which route you want to go,” she said. “We can continue and we can send out your load…for a renewal, and we would do that immediately.”
“We’re ready to go on that, and get the pricing back and you would stay your own aggregator, which is what you are now. We do the filings for the PUCO…we would do all your processing and so forth, so nothing there would change.”
“The other option is that in September,” she continued, “…Williams County’s government aggregation contract ends, which we oversee, and Center and Springfield Townships are in that. So that will be going out, and we’re going to be doing that RFP in the next month or so.”
“In the meantime, the Village of Edon and the Village of Stryker who were also with First Energy Solutions, which is now Energy Harbor, are with us. They’ve ceded authority to join in with the two townships in the county’s aggregation for bulk purchasing power.”
“We’ll all have the same start dates and end dates, and it will better the price…there’s just no two ways about it. So, in the case of Edon, theirs was up in February. What they did, because they wanted to cede authority and join in with Williams is, we did an extension, an addendum to their current contract with Energy Harbor, and just extended it to September.”
“It’s still the same contract, 6% – 4%, but now they align with Williams County, and they’re going to be part of that RFP. Right now, Williams County, when we send out that RFP, it will be the two townships, and the two villages.”
“What I’m asking is…I’m just seeing if you want to cede authority, and I’ll get into that and be part of that as well. And so what we would do is the same thing for you: talk with Energy Harbor who we work with all the time, have them do an addendum from May until September to extend your current contract. And when we do the RFP, your load will be in there as well.”
Later in the meeting, Council voted 4-1 to cede authority and join the county aggregation contingent.
In other actions, Council suspended the rules of reading and adopted Resolution 02-2021-3, a measure allowing the township to purchase and use “employee dishonesty and faithful performance of duty policy” through Ohio Plan Risk Management, instead of the purchase of individual surety bonds for officers, employees, and appointees who are otherwise required by law to acquire a bond.
Council again suspended the rules and passed Resolution 02-2021-4, initiating an amendment to the official zoning map of the village, to zone two parcels of land purchased in 2020, and annexed to the village in 2021 as R-1.
Council agreed to a recommendation from Mayor Don Leu to place Steve Riley on the Board of Zoning Appeals, replacing Bart Westfall who has moved out of the village. With the weather on the downside,
Mayor Leu made a request of the citizens of the village, saying, “There’s quite a few houses in town and around the area that don’t have any sidewalks shoveled. It’d be nice to get out and put one little path through, if possible.”
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com