MANCHESTER – The township entered into a new energy aggregation contract with Constellation New Energy recently, and residents should expect to see more information about the program soon.
An energy aggregation program is when a town buys its electricity in bulk with other entities to save costs. While Constellation will provide the actual electricity, Jersey Central Power and Light will still own the wires delivering it. Therefore, residents should keep an eye out for bills from JCP&L.
Previously, the township had a contract with TriEagle Energy which expired at the end of July. According to township figures, this saved residents more than $4 million over the course of the two years the town contracted with TriEagle.
This new contract will also last two years, officials said. The first bill with the new rates will be in October.
The deal with Constellation comes after a few attempts at finding a good deal. TriEagle offered rates 20 percent lower than JCP&L’s rates when it started. However, in February, the township only received one bid, which was only 5 percent lower than JCP&L.
Hoping they could do better, the Township Council collected another round of bids. Constellation was the best of this group, coming in at 10.5 percent JCP&L’s rate. They would charge at 8.11 cents per kilowatt hour. This company also had the highest customer satisfaction rating, officials said.
Informational meetings and mailings will be coming soon. In the meantime, officials shared these points:
- JCP&L is still responsible for the delivery of electricity to your home. If there is an outage or other problem, JCP&L is responsible to fix it.
- You will still receive a single bill from JCP&L and send your payment to them. JCP&L will then pay Constellation.
- If you are on a budget plan you will automatically be put on a budget plan by Constellation, at their lower rate.
- If you are receiving any energy assistance funding from the state or other source, this program will have no effect on your assistance.
- There are no hidden costs or fees. You can opt-in or out of the program at any time with no charge by either Constellation or JCP&L.
- You will automatically be opted into the program. Unless you choose to opt-out, you will then receive a letter from JCP&L confirming that you have changed your provider to Constellation. If you do not receive this letter, you are not entered in the program.
- This program is designed to save you 10.5 percent on the electric generation portion of your bill.
