As we enter the dog days of summer, citizens across Pennsylvania will be looking to jump into a pool as soon as possible. A new kind of pool hits Erie this week and locals may need to dip their toes in before getting wet. But like any pool, this one gets better if everyone jumps in.
In an informational webinar Wednesday, the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership introduced members and local business owners to its newest utility savings program, a business group energy program they call the Energy Pool. Created in collaboration with Chamber Choice, a collective bargaining consultant group leveraging the power of 96 chambers of commerce from across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and On Demand Energy Solutions, an electricity and energy buyer out of Pittsburgh, the Erie Energy Pool is an opportunity for chamber members to collectively bargain to reduce energy bills.
“What we are able to do, because of the size of the program is go out and negotiate deals for the program,” says On Demand’s Senior Energy Adviser David Skiles. “And we are able to help the small pizza shop and beauty salon the same way we help the Fortune 500 company.”
The way the Energy Pool accomplishes this is by understanding the way utility companies purchase energy. Most business owners looking to dip their toe in the Energy Pool are looking for guaranteed savings, but most energy companies don’t want to negotiate deals before they have purchased all their energy for the given year. Because of the size of the potential energy pool and the timing On Demand employs, On Demand can create a discount program based on the final utility price, guaranteeing that the more electricity costs, the more business owners can save. Its a complicated prospect but fortunately, interested business owners don’t have to jump in just yet. The Energy Pool’s online webinar can be seen here, giving interested swimmers a glimpse at this collective bargaining strategy.
“During these seminars we really need to train people as to what we are negotiating,” says Skiles. “There are three costs to electricity: generation, transmission and distribution. One of the things that gets confusing out there is people look at their bill and they divide that number by the amount of kilowatt hours and they think that’s the price to compare. But that price doesn’t include distribution. The idea of the webinar is to explain to people what we are shopping for, how we go about shopping it and what different types of products are out there.”
Source: David Skiles, On Demand Energy Solutions
Writer: John Steele