P3 Power Pool tells San Patricio County it saved roughly $917,000 'against market'; awards three-year retail contract

David Quinn, program manager for the P3 Power Pool, gave the commissioners an update on the group's aggregation and procurement activities and reported multi-year savings attributable to group purchasing. Quinn said the program manages roughly 2,000,000 megawatt-hours across its current three-year program (about $63 million in annual spend) and that, by P3’s in-house methodology, San Patricio County has saved approximately $917,000 "against market." Using the Public Utility Commission’s methodology, he said, the county saved $152,600 in 2024.

Quinn explained that P3 issues a competitive request for proposals to registered retail electric providers and narrows responses to providers with the back-office capacity and credit rating to manage large public-sector loads. He told the court that the board awarded the most recent contract to Champion Energy Services for three years with a fixed group rate of 6.04¢ per kilowatt-hour and that San Patricio County’s averaged contract rate is about 5.85¢/kWh over the three-year term, depending on local account composition.

Quinn described protections P3 negotiates into contracts for political subdivisions — for example, no penalties for over- or under-consumption and no minimum-use penalties if meters are shut down — and said the group charges an aggregation fee of $0.99 per megawatt-hour, itemized on member budgets. He said P3 will update budget estimates later in spring using 2025 consumption numbers and return to the court if longer contract terms become feasible.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions; no formal action was required. Quinn said the group will provide members with an updated budget report and bring proposals back if market conditions allow adding years to the contract.