 The first hour of the evening
was given to Mark Pruitt of ICCAN. After
his presentation and a question-and-answer session, the group took a
short break, then moved on to the presentation from Good Energy.
Javier Barrios, Good Energy
Addressing the joint meeting on behalf of Good Energy was Javier
Barrios, managing partner. Accompanying Barrios was Gary Fogelman,
business development manager.
Barrios began by saying he would offer a brief history of the
company and an explanation of who they are, then wanted to go
straight to questions from the boards.
Good Energy is a company out of New York, but they have offices
locally in Peoria. They sell a variety of products. They serve
as consultants in electricity, natural gas and renewable energy.
They are involved with energy efficiency and sell a variety
of retail lighting products.
The firm belongs to the Illinois Energy Professionals
Association, which assists in assuring a proper code of conduct for
consultants, fair pricing practices and assures the offering of good
service by the alternate retail electric suppliers, or ARES.
Clients they have in Illinois include an aggregation of greater
Peoria that includes municipalities in Peoria, Tazewell County and
Pekin. They have the second-largest account in New Jersey and serve
the nation's largest chamber of commerce in Cincinnati, which has a
total of 6,000 small-business members.
More locally they are working with Bloomington-Normal, Alton,
Granite City and are in Tazewell County, Mason County and Marshall
County.
In total, their firm represents 350,000 households.
Barrios said Ameren is watching Good Energy's aggregation very
closely as it is going to influence the tariff drafts that will come
in February.
Barrios said one of the reasons other communities have gone with
Good Energy is their supplier relationships.
"In Illinois we have strategic alliance agreements with 16
suppliers," he said. "They respect us, and they are going to come to
us with their top brass."
Snyder asked Barrios about the strategic alliance agreements and
supplier relationships. The question was similar to the one
asked earlier of Pruitt.
Barrios said Good Energy collects their fees from the supplier or
ARES. The city and county will not have to pay for their consulting
services.
Alderman Tom O'Donohue clarified the question, asking if there
were cases when the ARES paid Good Energy to send money their way.
Barrios said no, that does not happen.
Moving on, Barrios said his firm understands the aggregation
process and is there to look out for the client. He added they have
marketing programs ready to go as soon as the contracts are signed.
Barrios also talked about joining Logan County as a whole with
other nearby regions. He said looking at the entire county; it
appeared there were 14,000 households. He said that was a small
group, but he had met with a group in Bloomington who would be happy
to have Logan County join them.
Snyder asked how Logan County would benefit from joining a larger
group.
Barrios said it came down to leverage.
"You'll get a better rate with volume," he said. He used as a
comparison Wal-Mart versus small business. He said, "Does everyone
know Wal-Mart gets better prices on products because they buy more?
"If anybody tells you you'll be better off going out on your own,
they don't understand the industry."
Fogelman added that there would be greater interest from the
suppliers in a large grouping of customers as opposed to a smaller
one.
Barrios said even in the larger group, Lincoln, Logan County and
the other incorporated areas in the county would still have their
own contract. He also invited the boards to attend a meeting in
Bloomington on Jan. 31 to learn more about this.
County board member Jan Schumacher asked for a better explanation
of the meeting. Barrios said it is a meeting that Good Energy
set up with communities from southern Illinois and others interested
in aggregation who will listen to suppliers explain their experience
as ARES and the variety of programs they have worked with.
Andy Anderson asked if Barrios would steer the county toward
joining with these larger cities. Barrios said he would not steer,
but he would recommend it. Even so, he said each city and town in
the county and the county itself would have their own contracts.
Snyder asked about this, wondering how that would work with the
contracts being different, with different timing. Barrios said the
timing would be the same for the purchase of electricity but the
contracts would still be different. He later added that it would be
his job to see to it that the contracts were similar, and the price
would be the same for everyone.
Bates asked Barrios to walk through his timeline starting
immediately if they were chosen as the consultant.
[to top of second column] |
Barrios said the first step would be the referendum
campaign. Good Energy has mailings ready to go out encouraging the
"yes" vote to the referendum. He said that would be Good Energy's
focus until the March 20 election. When the referendum passes, the
next step would be the requests for proposals, or RFPs, that would
be sent out to suppliers.
In May, the bidding would begin.
During his presentation, Barrios had a slide presentation that
showed a sample of the direct mailing postcard the company would
send out to all the households.
Schumacher asked about the cards, saying that the card appeared
to imply everyone could save money. She said, "We don't want to
promote what we can't deliver."
Barrios walked through the process of selecting eligible
customers, much in the same manner Pruitt had earlier, but that is
the process to occur after the referendum passes, so Schumacher
expanded on her question, saying the cards might imply everyone
would save.
"Our concern is you're promising savings that might not be
realized," she said.
Barrios said this topic had come up in another meeting earlier
and the comments had been made, why would you not promote it to the
whole city? Barrios said Good Energy would provide a hotline and
staff to answer questions from individuals, so the consumer can call
the number and get better information.
He finished by saying that if Lincoln and Logan County don't like
the message, they do not have to go with this marketing.
Melody Anderson asked what the city and county responsibilities
would be toward customers once a contract was signed.
Barrios said the ARES would be the supplier of the electricity,
Good Energy would serve the city and county. Ameren will continue to
serve the customers, and customers will still take their problems to
Ameren.
County board member Kevin Bateman asked if Good Energy would
write letters to those who don't qualify for better pricing from an
ARES, explaining that to them. Barrios said no. If a household
doesn't qualify because they are all-electric or involved in some
other Ameren-only program, they will be opted out automatically.
Bates asked if the city and county would in the end sign a
contract agreement with the ARES. Barrios said yes, they each would.
He explained the contracts would be negotiated between the governing
entities and the ARES.
Barrios said his firm would act in the best interest of Lincoln
and Logan County in assuring the contract was properly written.
County board member Bill Martin asked what happens if the city
and county decide to not sign a contract with an ARES.
Barrios said simply, "We'd be left holding the bag." He expanded
his statement by saying, "That is our risk, and we're left with
it."
Bates asked about the communities that have signed with ARES
through Good Energy: Were they all in aggregation agreements now?
Barrios said yes, almost all of them were. Bates then asked if
the larger municipalities were saving more money than the smaller
ones. Barrios said he didn't know the answer to that question.
Asked about their rate, Barrios said they charge 75 cents per
megawatt hour. The money is paid to them by the winning ARES.
Andy Anderson once again asked his final question of the night:
"Why should we hire you?"
Barrios said he has been with Good Energy 11 years, and Fogelman
has been with the company four years. He said the company has no
plans of going anywhere and no one is going to be buying them. He
also added Good Energy is already serving commercial businesses in
Lincoln, but didn't say who.
As the second hour of the Tuesday night meeting wound down.
Snyder thanked the members of the county's insurance and legislative
committee for joining the city council for the evening. He then
turned the floor to Schumacher so she could conclude her committee's
meeting.
After a short break, the city council then moved into their
regular committee of the whole meeting.
[By NILA SMITH]
 |
