By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
The Delta Village Council was able to put together a quorum for a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to approve a contract with Dynegy Energy Services to provide energy service to residents and small commercial entities in the village.
The village engaged Palmer Energy Company to pursue quotes for the service through the Northwest Ohio Aggregation Coalition (NOAC) electric program.
Under that program, Energy Harbor was providing energy through the May 2025 billing period at a price of $0.063 per kilowatt hour.
Under the contract with Dynegy, which provided the lowest bid, that rate will now rise by more than 50 percent to $0.0975 per kilowatt hour for those customers who choose not to opt out of the program.
Alternatively, customers may also choose to opt in to a sub-program which provides 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources at a cost of $0.0983 per kilowatt hour.
Delta’s opt-out electric aggregation program has been running since initially approved in April 2016. According to an email from Palmer to the NOAC, a request for proposals was sent to six suppliers, with responses received from “Constellation, Direct, and Dynegy.”
“Based on the original RFP results, refreshed pricing was requested from Constellation and Dynegy for a 12-month contract term,” the email states.
Constellation provided a quote of $0.09852 per kilowatt hour, with an average monthly supply cost for residential users of $64 and $171 for commercial users, compared to $63 and $169 under the Dynegy proposal.
Council member Robert Shirer asked Village Administrator Christopher Frazer whether tariffs and other such tools used by Canada on energy exports to the U.S. in retaliation for a 25 percent U.S. tariff on Canadian goods that went into effect on Tuesday would affect the pricing.
In one such example, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday during a press conference he wrote to legislators and governors in Michigan, Minnesota, and New York to inform them that if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on any further tariffs, a 25 percent surcharge would be levied on all electricity exports to those states.
Frazer said he did not believe this contract would be affected by the dustup. However, potential cost increases due to the state of the economy and energy market did spur the council to hold the special meeting and approve the contract on an emergency basis.
“Market volatility has created an increased time-sensitivity on pricing proposed,” the Palmer email reads. “As such, returning a signed contract as quickly as possible will help ensure these rates are locked.”
Shirer, along with council members Chad Johnson, Lynn Frank, and Rachel Adams, voted unanimously to approve the contract. Council members Daphne Demaline and Anthony Dawson were absent.
The next regular meeting of the Delta Village Council will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 17, 2025, at 401 Main Street in Delta.