Councillors here are hedging their bets – to try to take advantage of locked-in energy prices – but only for a portion of the town’s use.
A background document from Wellington County manager of purchasing Mark Bolzon recommended “that the manager of purchasing and risk management be authorized to enroll the County of Wellington’s administration centre hydro supply account with Bullfrog Power, as part of the LAS electricity program, at an additional cost of 3¢ per KWh.”
The county is currently a member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), of which Local Authority Services Ltd. (LAS) is a member. LAS was created in 1992 by AMO and is a wholly owned subsidiary, with AMO being its sole shareholder.
The LAS is to work with municipalities, their agencies, boards, and commissions.
Mayor David Anderson told council about new issues on on electricity and gas purchases through LAS. He cited Bolzon’s letter and its breakdown of the savings if a municipality works with LAS. He said at the last county council meeting the idea of using Bullfrog Energy was discussed, at a rate of an extra 3.0¢ per KWh.
The decision at that time was that for the savings of going through LAS, they weren’t getting the same savings by going with a more green power.
Anderson said council thought that as more people got on, the costs might drop. He said they opted out of Bullfrog Energy and will continue the purchases through LAS.
He noted council had a motion later on in the night in regard to locking in the costs of the town’s hydro purchases. He wanted to know council’s thoughts. Anderson said he had stood up at county council and stated one of the things being looked at under the new government grant applications is what municipalities are doing environmentally.
After a recent excursion handing out energy kits, he said Minto can lay claim to taking action by delivering those kits to help its taxpayers save energy and water.
He considered 3¢ per KWh as very minor considering that retrofits to the town’s recreation facilities will provide energy savings there.
And if it is a part of an application to get grant money, “It might be a better foot in the door to get that grant money. The thing is, you don’t have to do the whole municipality. You could, say, designate just the administration building, with Bullfrog Energy … or designate the arenas.”
With a lack of response from council, Anderson wondered if it wanted to just accept the item as information.
Deputy-mayor Judy Dirksen was interested in the numbers. Even if the costs go down, she believes that type of information would be good to put in an application.
Councillor David Turton said the LAS gets the discount because of its bulk purchase program. He said it is only coincidence that the KWh discount is the same as the additional cost to use Bullfrog Power.
Turton said there seems to be no apparent reason in the rate drop other than the weather patterns. As for energy savings they have done nothing really other than buy bulk energy, he said.
“To spend an extra 3¢ per KWh for Bullfrog Power is the same thing. If council spent an extra $10,000 for the municipal office, I’m not sure what the advantage is. Somebody will have to convince me.”
He noted Wellington County chose not to pursue the idea.
Councillor Wayne Martin said his understanding is that it was all done on pricing. He said some of the differences are based on independents purchasing their own power, or contracting through others.
Martin contended many people are going back to free enterprise.
Anderson, however, said, when one looks at the regulated price, the LAS costs are lower.
The regulated five year plan is a floating rate, and there is the potential the locked in LAS rate might not be cheaper in the long run.
“It’s a crap shoot, is what it is,” Anderson said.
Turton asked when the last time was that the price of hydro went down.
Anderson said it fluctuates when its a floating rate.
Turton said it never seems to dip on residential costs.
Later in the meeting, councillors reviewed an environmental management committee report that recommend council approve a long-term energy contract of 41.7% of the town of Minto’s energy consumption for 2009.
Anderson asked Treasurer Gord Duff for additional information.
Duff said the environmental committee recommendation “would hedge our bets a little bit.” It would lock in costs for roughly 42% percent of the town’s energy, but let costs float on the remainder.
The idea was to promote energy conservation.
Another idea was to move more energy use to off-peak times, when costs are lower.
“We have a lot of off-peak time use, primarily the streetlighting,” he said.
He said LAS is a good program; it is just a different philosophy.
The committee felt it would give this idea a try for a three years.
Turton pointed out that to take advantage of off-peak hours a specialized meter is required.
Council passed the resolution for a long-term contract.
