Electric Aggregation – Why haven’t the residents of Mariemont reaped the financial benefits? 

Since 2001, when Ohio Electric Choice began, consumers have been able to purchase electricity from retail providers/suppliers other than their traditional utility companies. In addition, local governments have been able to form aggregated groups of residents to purchase electric power at discounted rates. A subsequent plethora of mailings and phone calls of offerings from alternative suppliers for lower electric rates became very confusing for the average homeowner. As a result, many owners began looking to their elected officials to take the lead and ensure they were receiving fair rates and service. Many jurisdictions throughout the state responded by choosing to offer an alternative option for residents to save money, forming aggregation programs.

To begin an aggregation program, a community must be certified by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. This is accomplished through a ballot initiative. If approved by the voters, local government negotiates a favorable rate with a qualified energy supplier of electricity and makes it available to residents. Those citizens who participate typically save between 10 and 15 percent on their electric bills.

In July 2012, Mariemont Councilman Cortney Scheeser made a recommendation to council to explore the possibility of electric aggregation after talking to an electric aggregation broker about the concept and process. The mayor assigned the topic to the Council Finance Committee in July. The committee held meetings October 8 and November 12 in 2012 but never submitted a report to council on its recommendations after meeting with the broker. The topic lingered on the council agenda for months and months. It was removed from the agenda late in 2013, after fifteen months or more, with no action by the mayor, finance committee or council.

As a separate transaction, the mayor and the finance committee chairman met with the broker and signed an agreement to lower electric rates for Village structures, ignoring the opportunity to lower rates for residents and businesses! A new 2-year contract was recently signed at a rate of 5.45 cents/kilowatt hour but no steps were taken toward a residential aggregation program.

Many Hamilton County communities have chosen to implement aggregation for the benefit of their residents and businesses. Here is a sampling of communities with electric aggregation (all at 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour) and their cost savings to residents and businesses in the first ten months of 2013:

These are real savings going to residents and businesses in their respective communities. As an illustration, Columbia Township has saved participating residents $134 per household and $1,793 per business just in the first ten months of 2013.

How much money could Village leaders have saved the residents of Mariemont if they had acted promptly on Councilman Scheeser’s recommendation? How much longer will it be before Village leadership takes steps to implement aggregation and by conservative estimate, save the Village’s residents and businesses over $300,000 per year? Who is asleep at the switch?