testing one two test test test that's
good
we're gonna have to trim
good afternoon everyone how are you all
doing
happy electrical aggregation information
session day here at City Hall
um yeah it's exciting
um I'm mayor Ben and I also have with me
a team here from Aspen energy who's our
broker uh and Elizabeth ellman who's our
environmental sustainability coordinator
so we're going to do a a brief
presentation here followed by questions
and answers to your heart's content so
if you bear with me one second I need to
do a screen share here and that should
in theory pop up
right there there we go
okay so we are here to talk about
electrical aggregation and I think a
first good question is what is
electrical aggregation
the theory behind electrical aggregation
is essentially that a city in Ohio and
this is an Ohio wide thing cities in
Ohio have the the ability potentially to
do aggregation can bulk purchase either
energy either electrical energy or Gas
Energy for the community at rates and
terms that are potentially favorable to
the community so that's the overarching
theory and it's kind of like a purchase
power concept right so like if one
person buys something it might be more
expensive than if you buy something for
the entire community so the city of
Bexley with our 4 000 plus households
like 4 400 households has the ability to
potentially secure a better deal than
um any one individual might on their own
that's the theory
um so traditionally aggregation has been
used in Ohio and I think it's been
around as an option since you know
decades ago traditionally it's been used
usually to procure pricing that's
favorable to Residents
um and we did this many years ago I
think 20 years ago or a little bit less
the city had a gas aggregation with IGS
Energy where we based entirely on
pricing
um but more recently communities have
been looking at how can we use
aggregation to secure a product that
makes sense for the community and
specifically usually it's used in an
environmentally sustainable way so
several years ago the city started
researching aggregation to see if we
could procure renewable energy for
Bexley residents and
a lot was happening several years ago
when we got started uh there was a war
that started in Ukraine right as we were
about to pull the trigger actually on
aggregation initially and that caused a
tremendous amount of fluctuation in
energy markets and as we're about to go
into this everything was Topsy turbine
it didn't make sense and so we've kind
of been waiting on the sidelines for a
time that made sense and it became clear
uh earlier this year that aep's rates
were about to increase substantially and
they have in fact done that so they were
in the they were around I think High
sixes I believe earlier this year I'm
looking over to our energy Brokers uh
they elevated up to a little bit to
north of 11 cents a kilowatt in June
um I think 11.8 11.6 and they've come
down a little bit in July to 11.2 but we
saw a moment in the market where we
could take advantage of this fluctuation
that was occurring and so we put out a
request for proposals for broker and
Aspen energy was the leading uh
contender in the RFP and was awarded
that and they went to Market and I saw
what can we do for Baxley under this
criteria that we're looking for
renewable energy for the entire
community
um
I think I just covered this
um and I think I want to also highlight
a year or two ago we put out a community
survey and we said hey Baxley what would
you be willing to pay extra for
renewable energy per month and it people
were kind of saying five or ten dollars
maybe a month they were comfortable that
was the overall consensus in that survey
um but our goal was not to have a more
expensive product our goal was to take
advantage of this moment in time in the
market have a more affordable product
and also have clean energy
so uh Aspen and Aspen went to Market and
came back with the best pricing with a
provider called dynagey
um with a rate of 6.86 cents per
kilowatt on a 20-month term that would
start in this September
um and that is to compare against the
current rate of AEP of 11.2 cents per
kilowatt in English the average Bexley
consumer and the average household
consumes a little bit over a thousand
kilowatts uh per month would currently
pay if you're just a normal AEP
uh enrollee and what that means is you
haven't otherwise signed up for another
contract right you just have the
standard rate you're paying about 123
dollars the average household and energy
for electricity uh based upon AP
standards rate on this this aggregation
rate it's 75 a month so it is around a
savings of roughly fifty dollars a month
right now based upon current rates
um it's a 20-month program
residents are automatically enrolled as
part of aggregation so you don't have to
do anything and you'll start to save
money in September
if you don't want to participate in this
program and have the ability to opt out
at any time there's no restriction as to
when you can opt out and we'll get into
some of those details in a second
I want to
provide a couple pieces of information
they think of cause some confusion in
the community one of them is in the
letter
uh uh that went to households
uh from dynergy this letter is required
by Ohio law and the language is very
much specified by Ohio law
it mentions a brown energy rate of
6.545 cents per kilowatt
that is a negotiated aggregation rate so
you can call dynergy and you can get
that rate you will save a little bit
more than 47 a month it is still
substantially less expensive than aep's
rate
Brown energy means it's gas natural gas
it's cold it is not from renewable
sources and we wanted residents to also
have option if they wanted to to Avail
themselves without slightly less
expensive rate but the default rate
that's going in on September if you
don't otherwise call you'll be at that
6.86 cents 47 a month savings
over the next 20 20 months ap's rates
can fluctuate they will likely go down a
little bit it is unlikely based on
historical precedent that they will drop
to the point that they're competitive
with our aggregation rate but it's
possible
one of the commitments we have for our
community is we're going to start
putting at the bottom of each weekly
blast
aep's current rate as of the date that
we published the blast and our
aggregation rate for people to make sure
that it's very transparent if that rate
ever drops below and then you'll have
information about you just call phone
number and you opt out you're out of the
program you can switch over to aep's
rate at any time
I just told you there's two next two
bullet points oh you're not seeing any
of this nobody told me that sorry hmm
that's weird
let me see if I can this is really
smooth this will be the one that we like
canned so that the next one we uh keep
on YouTube
oh thanks you like that
this came out of nowhere
um
it did but I don't know why that wasn't
showing up so all these slides you
didn't get to see this one this is a
pretty important one
um
and we'll put that up there
this is the one that shows you I'm so
sorry as I'm talking through this you
were supposed to be seeing those numbers
it shows you
what the AP default Services what's the
technical term I keep on saying the
default service
standard service offer
is of 11.2 cents per kilowatt hour
and then what bexley's aggregation rate
is
if in this moment of aggregation
discussion you become awakened to the
options that you have as a consumer of
energy in Ohio you can go to a website
called Apples to Apples
and it's it's hosted by the puco Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio and you can
compare rates that today you could sign
up for so you have other options other
than our aggregation if you decide to go
beyond what you're getting currently is
the standard rate I will warn you some
of those have early cancellation fees
some of them have rates that you just
have to read the fine print that there
are some commitments that you might be
signing up to that you're not aware of
I will reiterate for like the fifth time
you can opt out of this program at any
time at no cost and so we have that was
one of the key provisions of our uh our
deal with Aspen was it was part of that
program
um there are some aggregations that give
like opt-out Windows you can only do it
during certain times the letter
references doing it by August
7th
um that's for that first month of
billing so you can do it anytime after
August 7th it's just that if you do it
after August 7th you will be saving
money in September and uh you might not
want to do that in October I guess so
you could you have the option to do that
this conversation will be a little bit
different if it weren't such a radical
cost savings if we were like kind of
neck and neck or even maybe even a
little more expensive I think I have a
hard time imagining resident that's
upset about saving forty seven dollars a
month and again that's average
something I want to um call out I had a
question earlier today about
um you know I live in a certain area of
Bexley my grid is notoriously fickle can
you just spend time fixing the grid and
and can that be part of this
so
I want to highlight something our
electric bills are are separated into
two pieces in Ohio one is the power
itself
and the other is the infrastructure the
grid essentially so what we're talking
about when we look at that 123 dollar
you might say wow my electrical bill is
a lot more than that most people's are
because that average consumer at a
thousand kilowatts is paying a certain
amount for electricity and then a
certain amount for the uh the the actual
utility itself the the power lines the
infrastructure so that all always will
go to AEP AEP is responsible for
maintaining those polls and those
Transformers and those lines we're not
we have nothing to do with that rate
we're not touching that rate we're only
talking about where is the power coming
from in this instance the power is
coming from National wind it's called
renewable energy credits wrecks
so somewhere in America there are wind
farms putting out electricity we are
buying the attributes of that
electricity we're buying the rights to
that electricity at the end of the day
the electrons that come into your home
are a soup of electrons that are
generated you know within this grid from
a variety of sources but we are
consuming we are purchasing exclusively
this chunk of wind energy for Bexley
residents and that's how that's how
credits work essentially
we have a ton of more information
at bexley.org aggregation and at this
point in time
if Zoom
allows me
I am going to move the share over to
that website to help us as we
um have questions and answers but just
to give you a quick orientation of our
website at bexley.org aggregation has
a link to dynage's website this letter
um how you can opt in if you wanted to
opt in so there are some customers right
now you might have already gone to
Apples and apples you might already have
signed a separate contract somebody
might have come to your door and you
said yes I want that energy you will not
automatically get this program unless
you specifically opt in you have to you
have to do that because you're already
in a different contract in that instance
so there's more information about the
rates sort of reiterates what we just
talked about there's a really cool video
that Elizabeth put together about
aggregation
okay but then there are extensive FAQs
here and at this time before we go into
those questions John Jay or Elizabeth is
there anything that we need to add to
what I just said that you want to kind
of call out
come on over
bills will always be coming through AEP
so nothing's going to be changing in
your bill so we can only just that
Supply portion I just want to make sure
that there's not gonna be anything
different from your bill it's just that
still could be coming from AEP to the
supplies on there and this is the new
rate that's going to be on the supply so
understand what's your payment options
so if you auto pay is the same nothing
changes correct correct so not to change
has to go through HP because again they
pay for
the delivery of service and
infrastructure so
so with that are there any questions
from the room
yes sir
or give you microphone just so that you
could be heard I thought when uh you
started speaking we don't have to do
anything to be in this program you have
to opt out but then about two minutes
ago I thought you said you have to opt
in right which is it yep so it if you
are a current AEP standard rate customer
as in you've done nothing to otherwise
sign a contract for electricity you
don't do a thing you will be
automatically enrolled if you have a
separate contract so if you have at some
point in time recently signed you've
gone to the website and gotten a
separate energy contract or somebody's
come to your door and you've agreed to a
different rate that's when you would
have to opt in to get on the program
because you're in a separate contract
does that make sense now of our
households I think 70 of them
roughly am I right uh 70 of us us and
I'm one of them is just with the
standard AAP rate thirty percent of our
households have already separately
signed up for different rate that would
apply to them
not sure you can check your bill
yeah well your bill will tell you on the
I think it's kind of like the lower left
portion or something it says where your
energy is coming from and if it's a
separate contract it'll let you know you
might have to kind of interpret it but
only AEP customers received the letter
last week from dynagy
so if you receive the letter and you
want to participate you don't need to do
anything
that's a good point
also I've heard of some people that
believe their AEP letters customers who
haven't received the letters and that
may be a statement about our local post
office but I'm not sure so
uh double check yes
good thank you Tim good work I'm waiting
for the microphone
um so you talk about no changes uh we're
on a budget plan does the budget plan
carry over the with raise being lower
the budget would change anyway so it
doesn't get recalculated what happens
with FJ
yeah so we've been dealing with this a
little bit um dynagey actually has to
get you on the budget plan so if you
have a budget plan right now that you've
set up through AEP Ohio you need to call
the supplier and tell them how much you
think you're going to be using each
month and then they'll do the math on it
and you'll come up with a new budget
amount of what you'll be paying each
month so that is something you can do
just you need to call Dyna G about it uh
one follow-up real quick as well with
folks that are opting into the program
you do need to check if there's early
determination fees on current agreements
so if you're already in a contract with
somebody else check it out before you
switch because you could get hit with
I've heard of up to 150 early
termination fees so please look into
that as well
regular AEP right now correct yeah it'll
just it'll show up in the billing it
will be for September service start
which normally takes a month or two to
show on your bills so it would be
probably the following month probably
October November you would see those
charges and the lower bill
um so one of the advantages of doing
this new program if I'm thinking
correctly is because it's good for the
environment or using renewable energy as
opposed to the brown and so this is
better all around right correct yeah
it's a lower price and you're you're
trying to save the Earth so yeah it's
for sustainability and savings both I'll
add to that that a large percentage of
the carbon Footprints of homes and
people in Bexley comes from the home
energy usage so tackling that one issue
is going to make a big difference
yes
I do have a question but I want to
respond to that so where we are and out
of 60 plus counties at AEP Ohio
represents
all the electricity being generated that
goes into our house is from AEP Ohio
and that's where I I I'm glad you
negotiated and and I'll be involved in
this
but it's tax credits so it's kind of
like for the consumer you see oh well at
least the electricity I'm using in my
house is from Green energy that's not
correct you're getting crap
um you're getting uh credit renewable
energy credits someplace else but the
energy still being generated from AEP
Ohio plants for Bexley Ohio
so I'm just saying that that's just a
point that we certainly want to have a
more green plant and everything but
that's deceptive
from the company now I'm not saying from
you guys all right so we'll take we'll
take the credit that's but that's why if
you go into any school district a lot of
different school districts they'll put
the the um years ago many years ago they
would put the solar panels on because
companies would get credit for that so
so there are wrecks they're renewable
energy credits that's the credits but
hold on I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a
caveat to you okay it's a little more
complicated than just put it so in the
same grid that we're on
there are solar there are privately
owned solar panel Farms
there's the Highland one that just pops
into mind they're panel they're solar
panel Farms that are feeding into the
same grid that's why I said it's a soup
of electrons it is true that AEP owns
and operates power plants but they are
also going to Market when they purchase
that energy that comes to our household
so it's the truth is far more
complicated than that and what the
wrecks do
is they take that we are literally
taking the attributes of those one
energy credits offline for other
consumers and by doing that you're
creating more demand in the renewable
market so it's more it is true that the
physical electrons that are coming into
your household are generated into the
local Ohio grid but they're also
generated by things that are more than
aep's plants and so it gets we could
like go super deep into this but it is a
because we actually one of the reasons
this is like has taken us a couple years
is we tried to build our own solar
fields and it turned out that's a little
more complicated than we thought it
would be right so
um we still need to get it so yeah it's
kind of it's more complicated than that
but it is there is a there is
authenticity in the fact that we're
using Rex from oh and again I I just
wanted to make sure because I think for
the consumer majority you know keep in
mind that in Ohio that's why Ohio's
electricity is a lot lower because it
was uh 10 years ago 80 percent of the
electricity was generated with coal
burning plants
so as AEP Ohio slowly starts closing
their plants
then they'll be generating it outside of
of Ohio and we'll that'll come up so
that was my question I just wanted to
make sure I'm glad we got the credits
and that's great and that's going to
lower the price but it's not because
we're
uh we're generating that all from this
area the 60 plus counties that's right
um my Ohio has also made it just let me
really quickly say that
one of the discouraging elements of all
of this is Ohio this legislature has
made it much more difficult for wind and
solar plants to occur in Ohio which has
further kind of made this Market more
complicated to navigate
right and I know there's other we can
get into debates my question is in
regard to
I know this is a 20-month program but as
we look down the road because in other
states they have this and I don't know
if in auric you know Ohio Rural Electric
cooperatives or anything like that they
have the peak the tiered pricing where
in some some areas you might have tiered
pricing and that's that's only two times
a day or it could be three times or
maybe even in some place in Pacific uh
West Coast you could have up to five
different so that means that for
instance do your laundry late at night
not during peak hours and it goes up so
it might be an average but peak hours
are a lot higher
um and then during the unpeak so do you
know at this point because I I tried I
touch base with AEP I was trying to get
it and then I did talk to this group and
they didn't know and they just confirmed
that it was all generated by AEP it was
distributed by AEP the bills were coming
from AEP but it was the negotiating part
so do you know anything about the tiered
pricing or the peak hour so
correct me if I'm wrong but in Ohio
residential pricing is just a flat per
kilowatt hour rate if that changes it
wouldn't be at our level it would be at
a state regulatory level okay is that I
think and I think that that is the case
I thought it was with like with Pacific
there's a whole group that went all the
way down it I didn't think it was just
State related I thought it was with a
utility like if the PCO I think would
have to agree on it
I know right now in the state of Ohio
there's there's not the tiered pricing
where you pay more at peak times just
for for your power
um there there is a demand portion of
the charge that is integrated into your
service charges from um from the utility
that they go to the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio to get approved but
there's not tiered pricing based upon
different hours here in in Ohio
yeah it's definitely more so for a
commercial
any other questions
seem clear yes
do you like this this is what you think
we should do this
all right done
we wouldn't have brought it I mean so
this was this went through city council
it went through you know three readings
in a vote it was unanimous we wouldn't
have brought it to the community if we
didn't believe in it and if there's
comes a time when you know for some
reason there's something that comes out
that we weren't aware of then we'll make
sure to let the community know that but
this we did a lot at a lot a lot of due
diligence and research before going into
this it was not
um it was not entered lately
into the questions
thanks for joining us tonight and uh
you can always reach out to Elizabeth
who is a city staff member by con city
hall or you can reach out to me
um Aspen energy has given their contact
information that I think is on our
website uh Dyna G is the phone number
you have you call a lot of people uh but
the end of the day uh we're happy to
answer your questions so thanks for uh
turning out and I hope you have a great
rest of your evening thank you
foreign