CA, local villages sign new energy contract

“We are very pleased with this rate and the offer that we were given. It will provide immediate savings and long-term budget stability,” said Richard Anderson, a co-partner of the Columbia-based firm CQI Associates LLC. The firm organized a purchasing cooperative that included the CA, the 10 villages and 147 other businesses in Howard, Baltimore and Prince George’s counties.

Joining an energy cooperative helps small businesses save money on energy bills — about 8 percent to 15 percent a year, or one month of billing in the first year, Anderson said — because they have better bargaining power as a unified group. CA’s recreational facilities and office buildings, and the village center buildings will benefit from the new rates.

The association and the villages signed separate contracts with supplier Strategic Energy that set a fixed energy rate for 36 to 41 months, depending on the starting date selected. Anderson did not disclose the exact rates, citing a confidentially agreement, but he said rates will be about a penny per kilowatt less than what the CA and the villages are paying Baltimore Gas & Electric.

Village managers embraced the new contract. “This should save us all money,” said Harper’s Choice Village Manager Wendy Tzuker.

Joining the cooperative will save the Village of Town Center “a couple of hundred dollars” a month, said Town Center Village Manager Patricia Laidig. “We were very much looking forward to joining an energy co-op,” she said. Unlike residential properties, commercial entities were not affected by Maryland’s recent energy rate stabilization bill. The association held off on brokering an energy cooperative deal for residential units, because it wanted to see what rules the Public Service Commission would make about energy rates in the next legislative session.