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Commissioners approve utility‑permission letter to verify Constellation natural gas billing
Summary
After questions about overlapping charges from Constellation and CenterPoint Energy, commissioners authorized sending a utility‑permission letter allowing an outside firm to access billing data at no cost to verify contract billing and identify potential savings.
Delaware County commissioners on July 7 authorized a utility‑permission letter to allow Cost Stewardship, Inc. to obtain county utility usage and billing data from CenterPoint Energy and other providers to verify that the county's Constellation natural gas procurement contract is properly reflected on utility bills.
The action matters because staff received documents suggesting the county might be billed in multiple ways for natural gas—once via Constellation's commodity purchase and once via the distribution utility—and commissioners sought independent verification that contract terms and billed amounts align.
Commissioner Brand said he had the contract reviewed by an acquaintance with expertise in energy procurement who concluded the Constellation purchase agreement hedges 75% of projected usage at NYMEX futures and leaves 25% unhedged at current month NYMEX settlement price. "The agreement looks to be in order, so that's good news," Brand said, but he asked the outside firm to bridge contract and billing records to be certain. The county accepted a proposal from Cost Stewardship to do that work at no cost to the county if the county signs a permission letter authorizing Cost Stewardship to request usage and billing records from utilities.
Commissioners voted to approve sending the permission letter and engaging Cost Stewardship to reconcile utility billing to the contract. Staff said the review would use meter numbers and addresses to match bills to contract positions and return a report to the commissioners. No fee was charged for the review, and the firm would report any identified opportunities or discrepancies to the county for follow‑up with Constellation or the distribution utility.
Commissioners recorded the vote on the permission letter on July 7 and instructed staff to proceed with the reconciliation.
