City Council approves aggregation plan

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The progression for the city of Delaware to begin its electric aggregation program took another step forward during Monday’s Delaware City Council meeting after members voted to approve the city’s plan of operation and governance.

Earlier this month, council voted to authorize City Manager Tom Homan to enter into an agreement with Energy Alliances to serve as the city’s electric aggregation consultant and broker for the program. Approving the plan of operation and governance represented the next step before certifying the program with the state.

Prior to Monday’s meeting, the city held two public meetings last Wednesday and Thursday to review the city’s plan with residents. Additional meetings are now scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to review the plan of operation and governance as well as the program as a whole.

The additional meetings have been scheduled to correct an oversight in the public notices sent out for the initial meetings, which referenced “all eligible AEP Ohio customers” but did not mention current Ohio Edison customers. Next week’s meetings will serve to ensure all residents have been briefed on the city’s plan of operation and governance.

With the approval of the plan of operation and governance from the city, and following the additional public meetings, Energy Alliances will be able to begin the 30-day process of certifying the program through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Energy Alliances Chief Operating Officer Rich Surace said during Monday’s meeting that he anticipates having rates to evaluate in March.

Assistant City Manager Kyle Kridler said of the process, “The actual plan of operation and governance, itself, is pretty straightforward. As mentioned, it’s a part of the process to be able to aggregate energy on the residents’ behalf. Really, more of the details of the program will become clear at the step of the RFP, when we’ll look to the suppliers to see what rates come back for the cost of electricity rates at that time.”

Once rates are identified and a provider is selected, residents will be given a 21-day window to opt out of the program should they choose to find their own rates. Letters will be sent to residents that will include both a phone number and a mail-in slip to give residents multiple options to opt out of the program.

However, in response to a question from Mayor Carolyn Riggle regarding residents who currently utilize a provider other than AEP, Surace said some residents will not receive a letter from the supplier depending on their status at the time of the letters being sent.

“People who are currently shopping at the time of the opt-out window, they would not get a letter per Ohio code,” Surace said. “Nobody knows what terms and conditions that they’ve agreed to. We know whether they’ve switched or not, so we would know whether or not they would get a letter from the supplier. But nobody knows what they’ve agreed to. We don’t know if they have termination fees and so on and so forth. So, it would be on those who have switched to understand their own contracts if they would decide that they want to opt into the program at some later time.”

To learn more about the aggregation program, visit www.delawareohio.net/government/city-hall/aggregation.

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