City of Greenville to seek lower electric rate

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GREENVILLE — Greenville residents possibly could see a reduction in their electric bills in the near future, Greenville City Council was informed during its Tuesday night meeting.

Safety/Service Director Curt Garrison said Affordable Gas & Electric had approached the City of Greenville with a proposal to lower electric rates.

AGE negotiated a rate of 5.29 cents per kilowatt hour with Dynergy, and this rate went into effect in March 2017. Voters previously approved a ballot measure in November 2016 allowing AGE to negotiate reduced gas and electric rates on behalf of the city.

Garrison informed council the City of Urbana now has entered the aggregation program. When AGE bid out an electric rate for Urbana, it resulted in a 5.0 cents per kilowatt rate.

AGE bid out all the combined municipalities to determine a potential collective electric rate. As a result, the opportunity exists for Greenville and other participating entities to receive a rate estimated between 4.8 and 4.9 cents.

“That is a very good rate, and looking at the other municipalities that have entered into the aggregation program, that is the best rate in the State of Ohio, definitely the best rate in the DP&L area,” Garrison said. “I feel that would be very good for our community, as I don’t think we’ve seen that through the winter season unless you were an all-electric DP&L customer. All-electric customers got down into the 4.5, 4.6 range.”

Urbana’s contract continues for an additional 19 months past the original contract signed by Greenville. In order for the city to take advantage of the lower rate, a new contract, extending the length of the contract to match that of Urbana’s, would need to be agreed to by Greenville Mayor Steve Willman, council’s designated representative for aggregation. Per the original ordinance passed by council, Willman can sign off on the change as the contract is in excess of one year in length.

Though council did not have to be consulted, Garrison sought the body’s input.

Councilman Doug Schmidt asked how long the city had to make a decision. Garrison told him “as soon as possible” and added if the larger municipalities agreed to it, the smaller villages would likely follow suit.

“It’s kind of an ‘all or none.’ We all have to be in this together to get that kind of a rate,” he said.

Council members offered no objections to extending the contract.

Greenville Council meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. The meetings are open to the public and may be viewed the following day on the City of Greenville Ohio Youtube channel.

By Erik Martin

[email protected]

The writer may be reached at 937-569-4314. Join the conversation and get updates on Facebook search Darke County Sports or Advocate 360. For more features online go to dailyadvocate.com.

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