Oregon Approves Contract with Natural Gas Suppliers

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  Oregon City Council recently approved a customer supply agreement for the provision of natural gas to residential and small commercial customers as part of the Northwest Ohio Aggregation Coalition (NOAC).

The city has been a Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) certified governmental aggregator since 2000 and has offered various programs to residential and small commercial users over the years.

The city’s membership in NOAC, along with several neighboring communities, has resulted in an estimated savings to all NOAC residential and small commercial participants of $1.1 million on the current contract.

“For many years, Oregon has been part of an aggregation coalition for both natural gas and electricity,” said Administrator Mike Beazley at a meeting on Monday. “We feel very good about how that has worked for our residents. It is one of the very few things that government can do that actually puts money in our residents’ pockets. We literally save tens of millions of dollars for the regional population through this partnership.”

NOAC’s current agreement with Volunteer Energy expires in May 2021. NOAC’s energy consultant, Palmer Energy, recently issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for residential and small commercial customers to 11 suppliers. NOAC received five proposals for the provision of lower-cost natural gas to residential and small commercial customers in Oregon.
       
Suppliers

The NOAC member communities met and reviewed the proposals with Palmer Energy. Palmer recommended moving forward in the contract review and evaluation process with Constellation and Volunteer Energy for 12 month terms to further evaluate and determine which supplier represents the best savings for the residential and small commercial consumers in Oregon. The responses to the RFP provide for the term of the agreement to be 12 months with an increase of approximately $60 annually per contract, but with an anticipated approximate annual program savings of $1.06 million annually or potential customer refunds for commercial customers over the term of the agreement.

“This contract is a little bit more unusual this year because we’re down to the final negotiation between two parties and we’re running out of time on the contract’s expiration,” said Beazley. “Each of the NOAC communities will pass legislation like this. It gives us authorization to bargain and get it wrapped up. We have a conference call this week to try and wrap it up.”
       
Temporary increase
       

The reason for the delay: Columbia Gas, whose job it is to deliver the gas through a pipeline, has significantly increased one component of their charges through the federal energy regulatory commission, explained Beazley.

“It is a temporary increase pending a resolution at the federal level. It might be that the consumers end up prevailing on a portion of it and there will be reduced charges.  We’re negotiating with the parties about whether or not they will pass those savings on to the members. So there’s kind of a cumbersome bit of negotiation that is going on. There’s some interesting legal questions involved in it,” he said.

The ordinance gives authority to the city administration to move forward with final negotiations and enter into a final agreement with the consortium, he added.
       

The coalition is currently comprised of 13 member communities. Besides Oregon, they include Northwood, Lake Township, the Board of Lucas County Commissioners, Perrysburg, Rossford, Sylvania, Toledo, Waterville, Holland, Perrysburg Township, Ottawa Hills and Maumee.

Courtesy: www.presspublications.com