Thursday, January 26, 2012
 
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Good Energy pitches for aggregation contract

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[January 26, 2012]  Tuesday evening members of the Logan County Board and Lincoln City Council joined in a meeting at the Lincoln Park District to hear from two firms vying for the opportunity to serve as consultants in the process of electric aggregation for the county and city. 

HardwareThe 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. 

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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]

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