Gloucester Township Enters Into Energy Aggregation Program

Gloucester Township, NJ -- Gloucester Township, Winslow Township and Somerdale are have entered into a government energy aggregation program that covers nearly 36,000 homes, the townships announced Friday morning. They claim it is the largest government energy aggregation program in the state.

Together, the townships give a company permission to be the energy supplier for all of these households. Each customer will still receive a bill from either Atlantic City Electric or PSE&G. They will continue to call their local electric company in case of an outage, and generally never notice any change.

However, the energy supplier changes, and the program is designed to help the township save money. The theory is the bigger the group, the bigger the savings, and that the government program is able to get a better price than individuals are.

In this case, the energy supplier will be Good Energy, L.P., a New York-based company that began the movement for aggressive energy procurement strategies that it claims led to the energy aggregation programs being used today.

It represents a total of 600,000 households in over 200 energy aggregation programs, prior to Friday’s announcement.

“It’s very exciting to be able to reach across borders and work together for the good of our residents,” Gloucester Township Mayor David Mayer said in a release. “We’ve used the collective buying power of our households to negotiate a 7.5% - 9% reduction in energy costs each month for our communities.”

There has been some discussion at recent council meetings concerning the participation of residents in the program.
The way the program is set up is that the group enters into the plan, and individuals then have the option to leave, or “opt out of” the program.

Gloucester Township Republican Committee Chairman Ray Polidoro has argued that individuals should be given the option up front. It may be a good idea or a bad idea, but residents should be given the right to choose up front, he argued.

“If it’s really that good of an idea, people will want to opt in,” Polidoro said at the May 23 council meeting.

“Third party suppliers can include everyone only if the decrease in what they’re going to pay is guaranteed,” Council President Orlando Mercado said.

“If everyone bands together, everyone prospers, but opting out is the only way to do it,” Councilman Dan Hutchison said.

However, there is a certain period of time that must pass before residents can opt out. In this case, that period appears to be 14 months, but it may be sooner, depending on the electric company's actions.

“It just should’ve been presented differently,” Polidoro said.

Anyone who chooses to opt out can return to their original energy supplier.

The program takes effect in August.

For more on energy aggregation, including pros and cons, click here.

A public relations video published by all three townships is below: