Council authorizes manager to sign electric aggregation agreement to seek lower rates

The Wyoming City Council authorized the city manager to execute an electric aggregation agreement with a supplier recommended by Energy Alliances Inc., a step officials said is intended to protect residents from rising market and capacity charges.

Kathy Dieters of Energy Alliances Inc. told council the city's current aggregation contract, which set a fixed electric rate at 6.71 cents per kilowatt-hour, expires in July. "There is an increase that's gonna impact every rate payer," Dieters said, citing higher market power prices and rising capacity charges set by grid operator PJM.

Dieters said capacity costs — a portion of customers' per-kilowatt-hour price that PJM sets to ensure reliability — have risen and are a major driver of the higher indicative prices Energy Alliances received in a recent bid. She said an indicative price for the city's default aggregation rate was just under 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, and that Duke Energy's comparable price would be about 9.8 cents.

City staff recommended giving the city manager authority to execute an agreement if the supplier's price can beat Duke's price-to-compare. Rusty, the city manager, said council would be asked only to authorize execution after Energy Alliances returns a formal recommendation; the manager's authorization would allow flexibility to accept shorter terms or lower-cost offers without returning to council. "The idea would be to save the community money, to put the community in position to be able to get lower cost," Rusty said.

Dieters recommended a 12-month contract because capacity prices are set annually and are currently elevated; she said the city could consider shorter terms if the market permits. She also noted practical timing constraints for any opt-out notification: the program's opt-out window requires 45 days, limiting how quickly changes can be implemented.

Council members asked about likely enrollment under an opt-out program and whether residents could be returned to Duke if the aggregation price did not beat the price-to-compare. Dieters said typical participation under an opt-out aggregation is about 90 percent, and Rusty said staff would recommend reverting residents to Duke until market conditions produced savings if the aggregation price could not beat the comparison price.

The council adopted the resolution authorizing the manager to enter into the agreement. No specific supplier price was reported at the meeting; council authorized the manager to execute a contract once Energy Alliances provides a recommendation.