Friday, January 27, 2012
 
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Development partnership endorses ICCAN for aggregation contract

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[January 27, 2012]  Wednesday morning the members of the board of the Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership took a proxy vote by email and agreed overwhelmingly to support Mark Pruitt and the Illinois Community Choice Aggregation Network as their choice for a consultant as Logan County moves through the process of electricity aggregation. 

HardwareThe development partnership was largely behind the idea of getting Logan County, Lincoln, and the surrounding communities of Atlanta, Emden, Middletown and Mount Pulaski involved in an aggregation plan. 

According to Mike Maniscalco, executive director of the development partnership, it began with the choice of the partnership to bring BlueStar Energy to the various community leaders as a first choice of a consultant. 

Maniscalco said the manner in which the partnership did this didn't sit well with everyone, and he was criticized for making the choice for the governing bodies. 

Therefore, when the deals with BlueStar more or less fell apart, the partnership saw it as another opportunity to get involved and help all the regions of Logan County. 

"We decided we had started this, and we were going to see it through," Maniscalco said. 

This time, however, the board decided not to offer their recommendations until after the two vying for the consultant job, ICCAN and Good Energy, had made their presentations to the joint city-county board meeting on Tuesday night. 

Maniscalco said his board had received the written Q-&-A Mayor Keith Snyder had sent out. The board had reviewed the questions and answers from ICCAN and Good Energy thoroughly. In addition, they had done their own research on the two firms, both collectively and independently. 

When the partnership had their board meeting on Monday, the members were confident in their choice of ICCAN but decided to wait and hear the presentations with the city and county before making a solid final decision. 

Maniscalco's board consists of members of the city council and the county board as well as others. He said several partnership board members were in attendance at the meeting Tuesday night, including himself and Steve Smith in the audience, Mayor Keith Snyder and Alderwoman Kathy Horn on the city council, and county board chairman Bob Farmer and member Bill Martin. 

The presentations by Mark Pruitt of ICCAN and Javier Barrios of Good Energy solidified the partnership board's decision to support ICCAN. 

In the presentations of the two firms, there were several differences in what their approach to aggregation for Lincoln and Logan County would be.   

One of the most noticeable differences in the two firms came as they answered questions about volume discounting. The question was posed: Would Logan County benefit from joining forces with other areas such as Peoria? 

Pruitt said that statistically, nothing has proven the electric rate will be discounted by volume. He said where the discount can come in is through the fee charged by the consultant. 

Barrios, on the other hand, said volume discounts were out there. He noted it was a part of the marketing process, and he used as a comparison that "everyone knows Wal-Mart gets better prices than small businesses do because they can buy more." 

Tuesday afternoon, Maniscalco was asked about this issue and who was right and who was wrong.   

He said it really wasn't a matter of calling one right and one wrong; it was a matter of looking at who had the numbers to support their claims. 

He said Good Energy had not produced evidence that large volume buying will be cheaper.

On the other hand, Pruitt had shown them the numbers and had even offered an example of a large group going together, and in the end they actually paid more for their electricity than other, smaller groups had. 

The story behind this comes down to the large group spending too much time getting everything in order. The bottom line on buying into electricity is that it sells like a commodity such as soybeans or corn. The prices change several times a day, so timing is crucial to making the best purchase. 

Another startling difference between the two firms is in the fees they charge. Good Energy quoted their fee Tuesday night as 75 cents per megawatt hour, while ICCAN said they would set a price "not to exceed" 20 cents per megawatt hour. 

Good Energy will collect their fee from the winning bidder of the electricity, but in the long run, that cost will eventually find its way to the consumer. 

ICCAN said they preferred to have the governing bodies pay their fee, but that it could be added into the cost to the consumer if needed. 

Either way, the bottom line is that the cost will go to the consumer. Therefore, if 75 cents is not needed to get the same services, the question is raised as to why the people of Logan County should have to pay it.

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Maniscalco was asked why electricity aggregation was important to the development partnership, the county and the citizens of the county, and why the partnership chose to get involved with this. 

He explained that first and foremost it is good for the community. He noted that every dollar made in Logan County will be spent seven times over in the local businesses. If the people of Logan County can save money in one area, they will have it to spend in another, making it a good move for the local economy, and it improves their quality of life. 

In addition, the partnership is looking forward to adding electric aggregation to the Logan County resume as it seeks to attract new businesses to the community. 

Maniscalco said doing this will show business owners that Lincoln and Logan County are concerned about their citizens and want to offer them the best choices. It shows the county cares about more than just business, it cares about its people. 

Maniscalco also noted that as the partnership was looking at this, they concluded they were the ones best suited to try to bring everyone together.  

"We became aware there were no other entities that could drive this (project) countywide. We wanted it to be countywide because it wouldn't be good for everyone to enter into different agreements with different prices," he said. 

As an organization serving the entire county, the partnership has access to all the governing bodies in the county. In addition, he said it was good for the partnership as it gave him and others on the board more real face time with those community leaders. 

On Wednesday evening the city and county had a meeting at the office of Mayor Keith Snyder. Those in attendance were representatives from the city and from the county's insurance and legislative committee. 

The intent of that meeting was to compare their impressions and take back to their respective boards their recommendation for a consultant. 

Maniscalco attended the meeting with his recommendation of ICCAN, but the final decision will be in the hands of the voting members of the Lincoln City Council and the Logan County Board. 

In a letter sent by Mayor Keith Snyder after Wednesday night's meeting, he stated a consensus had been reached and that that decision will be given at city and county board meetings respectively for a vote. 

In addition to the city and county, the other incorporated areas in Logan County will also have to decide what they want to do. 

Maniscalco said Wednesday afternoon that Atlanta Mayor Fred Finchum attended the Tuesday night meeting in Lincoln and will be reporting back to his board on the events. 

The village of Emden had already signed with BlueStar. When the change came about in that company, they recommended ICCAN as a substitute. Emden decided to go with that recommendation, so they are already in the process of signing with ICCAN. 

As of Wednesday afternoon Maniscalco had not yet spoken with leaders in Middletown or Mount Pulaski, but he intends to do so in the near future. 

So, now that everyone knows who their choices might be, what role will the development partnership play from here on out? Maniscalco said the partnership is willing and ready to step in and help with the aggregation process as much as they are wanted or needed. 

"We will be right there with them, but when they tell us they don't need us anymore, we'll take a step back," he said. 

[By NILA SMITH]

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