Public invited to learn about upcoming vote for lower electricity rates

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SIDNEY — Residents living in several communities within the DPL electric utility area will have an opportunity to secure lower electricity rates by approving a community aggregation question on ballots this November. Residents in communities such as Greenville, Bellefontaine and Covington are the headlining communities whose residents will have the opportunity to seek lower electricity rates by combining their communities to maximize bulk negotiating possibilities. Other municipalities allowing their residents to vote for lower electricity rates include Anna and unincorporated Shelby County DPL customers, De Graff, Quincy, Belle Center, Ansonia, West Milton and unincorporated areas of Newberry Township and St. Paris.

The public is invited to a series of public meetings which will provide an overview of the electricity aggregation ballot question. Representatives from AGE, the consultant managing the aggregate group will be on hand to answer questions. The public meeting schedule is as follows:

• Village of Anna, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m., and Oct. 25 at 7 p.m., village hall, 209 W. Main St.

• Shelby County (unincorporated), Sept. 26 at 7 p.m., and Oct. 24 at 7 p.m., County Annex Building, 129 E. Court St.

• Village of DeGraff, Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m., municipal building, 107 S. Main St.

• Village of Quincy, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m., village hall, 115 N. Miami St.

In November 2015, the city of Sidney and the villages of Fort Loramie, Botkins, Russia and Bradford provided their residents a similar opportunity. Residents in these communities overwhelmingly approved the aggregation questions with upwards of 85 percent approval in several communities. The results of the competitive bidding for the aggregate provided residents with rates estimated to be 27 percent below the previous 12-month historical rates of DPL. The contracts negotiated are fixed for a full three-year term.

In Sidney, 89.43 percent of eligible households are participating in the city-wide electricity aggregation rate. Botkins, Bradford, Fort Loramie and Russia are all seeing slightly higher participation levels ranging from 91 percent to 94 percent. An average resident will see an estimated $120 per year in savings based on historical DPL utility supply rates, with some larger users seeing upwards of $300 to $400 per year savings. An estimated $550,000 per year will be saved collectively by the residents of the five communities.

Affordable Gas + Electric (AGE) has been retained by these communities to guide them through the process of approving the aggregation questions, formulating the bidding process for the group of communities and to manage the ongoing efforts for the collective group.

“With anticipated approval from the residents of Greenville, Bellefontaine, Covington, Anna, West Milton and others, we will combine this group of 14 communities voting in November with our existing group of eight other communities including the Sidney/Shelby County communities for a very nice regional negotiating group in the DPL utility area,” said Jeff Haarmann, managing partner of AGE. “Suppliers such as AEP Energy, Constellation, Dynegy, IGS and others have already committed to bid to serve this collective group. When suppliers compete for our bulk aggregations, residents win.”

For more information residents can visit www.AffordableElectricRates.com.

Staff report

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