City finance committee hears Good Energy proposal

8 months ago By Denise Donley

Residents wouldn't have to participate in energy aggregation

Good Energy, L.P., presented its electric aggregation consultant proposal at Monday night's City finance committee meeting.

Originally, the committee had four consultants but cut down to two, Good Energy and SIMEC LLC.

If chosen, Good Energy would serve as the energy management consultant to help residents save money and increase the value of their assets.

The energy supplier would remain Ameren, which means residents would get one bill and make one payment.

Good Energy's Business Development Director of Electricity and Natural Gas Philip Carr explained to the committee how large commercial businesses have been saving money by switching to alternative energy supply.

Carr adds residents would save between 27% -33% or about $150-$200 on their electric supply.

Carr says, "When all of this energy comes together, you get buying power."

Good Energy is not associated with any energy company and the City chooses if they'd like to have green or traditional energy and the length of the aggregation contract.

Director of Administrative Services Gary Sparks says, "The City isn't making a dime off this. Aggregation would be for the benefit of the residents in Quincy"

When asked by Third Ward Alderman Paul Havermale if the government getting involved with energy is an overreach, Carr says, "No."

Carr adds, "The money is out there for the city to have. The government would be organizing itself to efficiently gather money that's in the market through a law that Illinois is lucky enough to have."

Residents don't have to participate in energy aggregation, but 91% to 96 % choose to not opt out and participate in energy aggregation.

If Ameren rates were to drop back to cheaper than those of aggregation, Good Energy would either match Ameren's price or allow residents to opt out at that time.

Good Energy would pay for all of the marketing media costs and would eat the cost if the City decides not to work with Good Energy.

If chosen, Good Energy would make .00075 profit per kilowatt hour of energy used.

If selected, seven to nine people from Good Energy would work with the city administration staff to provide for the city.

Illinois is one of two states to move to energy aggregation, the other being Ohio.

The other possible energy aggregation consultant, SIMEC, will present at Tuesday night's finance committee meeting.

In other business, the committee voted to send three guaranteed energy savings proposals to energy expert Jim Wood of Ameren for him to review and voice his feelings on the recommended items.

Also, the committee approved a credit card application for city department heads to buy items online at a cheaper price.

Sparks says, "We didn't want to issue individual credit cards to every department, so we kept one with the comptroller's office that can be utilized on an as-needed basis."

The credit card has a $1000 limit.

The City Finance committee will meet Tuesday, September 11th at 6:00 p.m. to hear the second electric aggregation consultant proposal from SIMEC.