20 Mar Plan Could Reduce Electricity Bills in Elmira
ELMIRA, N.Y. (18 NEWS) – Elmira City Council met today to discuss the option of switching to a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program for it’s electricity needs. It’s something many towns, villages and cities across the country are doing to save money.
“The idea here is bulk purchasing so that individual consumers as a group should save more on their electric than if they were buying it individually,” says Louise Gava, a Municipal Electric & Gas Alliance (MEGA) CCA Project Leader.
“There’s also consumer protection elements based on the way the program is designed and there’s also the opportunity for the municipality like the City of Elmira who we’re here talking with today to make different choices about their energy future,” she says.
If the city does decide to aggregate only the supply portion of your electric bill will change. The delivery will still come from NYSEG, but you would be buying in bulk from a third party company. That company can set a fixed rate for customers which could save them money.
“So if folks remember 2014 in December when the prices went up to– I know the area I was living in it was $0.14, more than doubling. That wouldn’t happen in this situation. So there’s the known expectation of price as well as the savings,” Gava says.
And if you’re looking to switch to more sustainable sources of energy, CCA could help with the transition.
“And for the folks that are interested in sustainability and reducing carbon omissions there’s the opportunity to have renewable energy as well in a way that they couldn’t necessarily before,” Gava says.
Gava says different customers could see different savings, but generally buying in bulk reduces cost for the customer.
“Probably below 5% [savings]. It depends on the size of the aggregation it depends on the time of year depends on what the market does for about a year from being able to switch people to supplying to a CCA but here in this area of the state there’s a lot of interest so we’re expecting a really good results,” she says.
“Our company won’t be moving forward if there aren’t opportunities for everyone and benefits for all,” she says.
City officials are also looking forward to see how beneficial this program could be for Elmira residents.
“We’re definitely interested in it because it could save our residents money,” says Elmira Mayor Dan Mandell.
“Anytime you can help out your residents and maybe some small businesses it’s always a good thing to do so we’re definitely going to look forward and move forward with the CCA through MEGA,” he says.