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Grandview Heights finance committee reviews electricity procurement options as contract deadline nears
Summary
City staff told the Finance Committee that Grandview Heights must decide soon whether to remain in the Ohio School Consortium or shift more accounts to the city's aggregation program; staff presented recent rates and usage figures and highlighted potential budget impacts.
The Grandview Heights Finance Committee discussed the city's upcoming decision on electric procurement during its meeting, with staff saying a commitment is needed before the consortium's next purchasing round in June.
Director Tricia Miller told the committee, "this week is the week that we have to make the decision for sure. Yes or no in or out of the program," and summarized the city's current accounts, recent rates and estimated budget impacts.
The matter matters because the city spends roughly $180,000 a year on electricity and could pay materially different rates depending on whether large accounts remain in the Ohio School Consortium or move to the city's aggregation. Miller said the city has about 38 AEP accounts in total: 16 of the largest accounts are currently in the consortium and the remaining accounts are in the city's aggregation program. The consortium portion uses about 1,300,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
Staff presented current per-kilowatt-hour figures: AEP's default (ADP) at 7.78 cents, the city's aggregation rate at 6.97 cents and the Ohio School Consortium rate at about 3.921 cents. Miller said a representative for the consortium, Tony Van Gundy, provided those comparisons and suggested a plausible future spread of about two cents per kilowatt-hour between the consortium and aggregation prices. Using that two-cent example against the consortium usage of 1,300,000 kWh, staff estimated an extra cost on the order of $26,000 for the city; staff also presented an alternate calculation showing a $40,000 difference when comparing current aggregation and consortium rates.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about which accounts are placed in each program (the larger kilowatt-hour accounts go into the consortium), contract lengths (staff said contracts typically run three years with extensions up to five), and whether there are penalties for leaving or rejoining a consortium. Miller said the consortium needs a list of accounts in time for its market purchase and that missing the current round could mean waiting until the next solicitation, which staff estimated might be several years.
Committee members also asked about the energy-source mix for the consortium procurement; staff said the consortium focuses on pricing and that they did not have the generation mix details available at the meeting. Members discussed the fiscal context: staff noted previous annual savings when in the consortium (about $49,000 in 2022 and roughly $37,000 in both 2023 and 2024 compared with AEP default rates) and stressed these are comparisons to the utility default rather than definitive future savings.
No formal council vote or ordinance was recorded in the committee meeting minutes; the discussion was presented as material information for the upcoming budget and procurement decision.
The committee agreed to include the procurement decision in near-term budget planning and flagged the June contract timeline as the key deadline for committing to consortium participation or moving more accounts into the city's aggregation program.
