Aggregation Consulting Services
Through its wholly owned taxable subsidiary, AMPO, Inc., American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) provides consulting services to both electric and natural gas aggregations.
Aggregation Consulting Services
Aggregation allows a group of consumers to combine their utility usage to form a buying group. With its greater bargaining power, the buying group may be able to secure lower or more stable prices in today’s competitive market.
The major gas and electric utilities allow their industrial, commercial and residential customers to buy gas and electricity from an alternate supplier, if they wish to do so. When referring to residential and small commercial customers, these programs are called CHOICE. Under the CHOICE programs, the local gas and electric utility still delivers to homes and businesses, responds to emergency calls, reads meters and operates and maintains its distribution system.
Over the years, more than 500,000 people have selected alternate electric suppliers and over 1 million have selected alternate natural gas suppliers through CHOICE programs. The primary reason has been the stability of energy costs with no change in service quality. With electric and natural gas aggregation, even more consumers are able to enjoy this stability and, in many cases, lower costs.
For more information regarding or about starting a municipal aggregation program, please contact Terry Leach, Vice President of Risk and Administrative Services and Chief Risk Officer (CRO), at 614.540.1111 or [email protected].
Electric and Natural Gas Aggregation FAQ
Your community can set up an electric or natural gas aggregation program as long as your local utility is an “open access” utility. To view an up-to-date listing of open access utilities, check the websites of your state’s Consumers’ Counsel or the Public Utilities Commission.
Once the program is in place, eligible residential customers are included in the aggregation. To be eligible individually, you must be current on your account with your local utility. For natural gas aggregation, you must also live within the boundaries of the municipality and cannot be a participant in the Percentage of Income Payment Plan Plus (PIPP Plus).
Non-profit organizations, commercial customers, and municipal facilities can also participate. For electric aggregation, they must have annual electric consumption of not more than 700,000 kilowatt-hours and not be part of a national account with multiple facilities. For natural gas aggregation, they must have annual natural gas consumption of not more than 500 Mcf and not more than three locations in Ohio.
There is typically no cost to enroll in either an electric or natural gas aggregation program. However, if you are already using an alternative supplier under an existing CHOICE program, you may have to pay a switching fee or a cancellation fee to your existing supplier or local utility if you cancel your existing supply contract early.
If your community passes opt-out legislation, information will be mailed to all eligible customers, and they are automatically enrolled (unless they choose to opt out of the program).
If your community chooses an opt-in program, then there are several ways to enroll, including:
- Complete and return an enrollment form by mail.
- Call a toll-free number provided with the program enrollment materials.
- Complete an enrollment form online at the website provided with the program enrollment materials.
Normally, the alternate supply company will complete the transfer of service with the local utility. You will see no change in service, delivery or billing, all of which continue to be handled by your local utility.
The initial term of the agreement with the alternate supplier can vary between communities but is typically two to three years for electric and two years for natural gas. At the conclusion of the initial term, you will be provided with details regarding the option to continue the program for another term. After the initial term, if you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return to your local utility’s standard service offer or select another approved supplier.
Enrollment periods will vary with each community.
Since the local utility still issues the entire bill, you may continue on the budget payment plan of your existing company for both electric and natural gas services.
Yes, because your local utility still issues the entire bill, you can continue to use their automatic bill payment service for both electric and natural gas services.