Commissioners hear plan to reactivate county gas aggregation and issue electric RFP amid volatile energy markets

County officials received a presentation on the status of Medina County’s government aggregation programs for natural gas and electricity and were advised to negotiate a short-term natural gas supply contract and issue a request for proposals for electric supply. Kevin Lauder Young of Community Energy Advisors, the county’s exclusive energy broker, told commissioners that the county’s natural gas aggregation certificate remains valid through September 2026 but the last supply contract expired in June 2025 and enrolled accounts reverted to the utilities’ standard choice offer (SCO). “There’s much more room for the market to go up than there is for the market to come down,” Lauder Young said, and recommended negotiating a best price for a 12‑month contract to provide residents an optional protection against market spikes. Lauder Young reviewed factors shaping prices: record natural‑gas production and storage that can push prices down, and increasing demand from data centers and generation capacity requirements that push prices up. He said Columbia Gas customers (most of the county) could see a contracted price near the SCO forecast and that Enbridge accounts (about 10% of county gas volume) were less favorable in supplier bids. On electricity, Lauder Young said the county’s current electric aggregation contract runs through April 2026 and that capacity charges in the PJM region have surged — most recently by hundreds of percent in auction results used to set future capacity costs. He said suppliers are cautious and that the county should issue an RFP for electric supply; staff told the board the RFP would be issued the next week. Commissioners asked for usage-weighted pricing data and confirmed the county’s certificate could be renewed even while the county is not actively under contract. Lauder Young said a short 12‑month gas contract would allow the county to revisit terms quickly if markets shift. No formal procurement decision was taken at the meeting; staff said they would return with bids and a recommended contract for execution. Why this matters: Aggregation programs aim to leverage county-wide buying power to secure fixed supply prices and protect residents from extreme monthly price spikes. With wholesale energy markets and PJM capacity auctions in flux, the broker recommended a cautious, short‑term approach so residents could opt back into a county-negotiated rate rather than remain on the utility SCO.