Delaware’s electric aggregation program is nearly set to be implemented across the city, and all eligible electric accounts in the city will soon begin receiving letters giving them the option to opt out of the program.
Residents voted in favor of the aggregation program last November, authorizing the city to form a governmental electric aggregation program for the purchase of electricity on behalf of eligible city residents and small businesses. In January, the city selected Energy Alliances to assist and advise it through the aggregation process.
After the city became a certified electric aggregator on March 5, Energy Alliances administered a Request for Pricing (RFP) process to solicit bids for suppliers. Ultimately, four bids were received and Dynegy Energy Services was selected as the supplier after Energy Alliances determined Dynegy could offer the greatest overall value to supply the city’s aggregation program for four specific reasons.
Those reasons included Dynegy’s ability to provide prices lower than AEP Ohio and Ohio Edison’s projected price to compare, to offer a traditional product in addition to providing a product offsetting 100% of the energy consumed with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), to offer a program with no termination fee and allow the ability to opt into the program at any time during its term, and to handle customers that utilize net-metering.
During its March 27 meeting, Delaware City Council voted unanimously to make Dynegy’s renewable energy option the default option for all consumers who will partake in the program. At the onset of the discussions about a potential aggregation program, council committed to pursuing renewable energy only if it saved residents money, vowing to prioritize cost savings above all other factors.
Consumers who receive letters, which are set to be mailed on April 17, must now decide whether or not to opt out of the program. Those who wish to take part in the aggregation program but continue to utilize traditional energy will still have the option to opt into a non-renewable energy program at a slightly lesser cost.
The rates for current AEP Ohio customers who wish to enroll in the aggregation program will be $0.0709 per kWh for renewable energy and $0.0672 per kWh for traditional energy should they choose to opt for it. Ohio Edison customers will pay $0.0695 per kWh for renewable energy through the aggregation program and $0.0658 per kWh if they opt into the traditional program.
“At the end of the day, we did have the goal of saving money and doing renewable energy,” Councilman Stephen Tackett said during the March 27 meeting. “While we have both options of traditional or renewable — they’re both lower (prices) — we did make a resolution that this is what we wanted to do, and we’re still saving folks money.”
Vice Mayor Kent Shafer said of making renewable energy the program’s default option, “Going into this, I did not expect we’d have a situation where the renewable was so close to the brown energy (in cost). And had it been further apart, I would not have supported it because our primary goal was to save our consumers money. But we’re at a point here (with these prices) that it would not make sense to go the other way.”
Eligible electric accounts that should receive a letter are those on the utilities default/standard supply rate and not shopping with an alternate supplier, those not on a Percentage of Income (PIPP) Plan with the utility, commercial accounts that use less than 700,000 kWh annually and not considered a mercantile account, and accounts not on the “do not aggregate” list with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Account holders receiving a letter and wishing to opt out of the program or opt into a traditional energy source will have a 21-day window to do so before the window closes on May 8. Accounts that do not opt out will be automatically enrolled in the program with the June meter read date and will receive their first bill reflecting the aggregation rate and supplier on their July bill.
For more information on the program, as well as to view a list of frequently asked questions or contact Energy Alliances, visit www.energyalliances.com/city-of-delaware.
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.
