City of Jacksonville Electrical Aggregation Customers May See A Price Decrease

By Benjamin Cox on June 11, 2020 at 10:10am

Jacksonville’s electrical aggregation program customers can expect a decrease in their electric utility rate. During the Jacksonville City Council meeting Monday night, City Clerk Skip Bradshaw, who oversees the program for the city, says that city aggregation customers currently pay 5.653 cents per kilowatt hour until December 2020, when the current aggregation program contract is complete.

Bradshaw says its the third time that the city has completed an aggregation contract since it’s inception in 2009. “I recently attended a virtual meeting in regards to what’s going on with rates right now with Good Energy, who happens to be our broker. We are set to have another meeting, and then the actual bidding will take place on June 16th. Under a resolution passed by the city council, the mayor and I are given the authority to go ahead and sign the aggregation program once we get the rates.”

Bradshaw says that many downstate municipalities participate in Good Energy’s bidding and aggregation program. “Just to give you an idea, they are anticipating a rate decrease, the rate is anticipated to be between 4.2 cents per kilowatt hour to 4.5 cents. You can see that’s quite a reduction. It’s down to where it was during our first year [of the program]. Bottom line is that Good Energy goes out with 3 bidders. What they do is vet these bidders based on their financial stability, and then, the bidders come in and bid for a group of several municipalities. There is 20, and maybe close to 30 communities – Edwardsville, Alton, Jerseyville, and we’re almost the most northern city of all that group – that participates in this process.”

Bradshaw says that the city aggregation rate provides a steady rate over an extend length of time rather than being tied to market inflation and reduction at any given time. “The current rate for Ameren is a little lower than what we are getting right now, but Ameren’s goes up and down probably every 6 months. We really just take a chance in signing up for [a contract] that’s 18, 24, or 36 months and try to get the best rate that we possibly can for the community. It does not mean that the community has to take that rate. They can sign up for Ameren any time that they want. They just have to opt out of the aggregation program. We’ve been doing this for 11 years, and I feel that this is the best deal for the community based upon the rates that we get.”

According to ChooseEnergy.com, Ameren’s current cheapest electrical delivery rate is 4.99 cents per kilowatt hour.

The resolution to allow Bradshaw and Mayor Andy Ezard to sign the aggregation contract on June 16th passed the city council unanimously on Monday night.