From Ella Preiser, Communications Administrator, Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations
A Message to All:
At this time when so many people are out of work and small business owners are concerned about their survival, some Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations (CGCA) representatives are deeply troubled that the Greenburgh Town Board has not taken the opportunity to inform people about a possible way to save some money.
The CGCA urges you to check your monthly Con Edison bill. If the bill indicates your electricity supplier is Constellation and your supply cost is 7.709¢ per kWh, you were probably enrolled in this ESCO (starting January 2019) by the Greenburgh Town Board. If enrolled, you have been paying considerably more than those of us who “opted out” of this ESCO. Please review the attached table which provides information on the kWh costs per billing cycle for seven different property owners who did “opt out.” These figures were taken from actual Con Edison bills. The first five properties are residences. Properties #6 and #7 are small businesses.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the “history” of the Town’s involvement with this ESCO, attached is information you may find helpful. At the very least, skip to the last lines of the document below which illustrates the cost savings ($37.15 and $115.53) for a single month for two different properties. Paying the higher price could be very costly over the two-year contract.
The Greenburgh Town Board is not alone. Twenty-six other Westchester municipalities participate in this CCA. The concept was good but it is not working to the advantage of electricity users. The ESCO named Constellation is raking in millions of dollars from residents and small business owners.
If you are paying too much, contact the Town Board for an explanation of why they did not keep you informed. Feel free to pass this message on to your neighbors.
Stay safe and well.
Ella Preiser, CGCA Secretary
First Document:
First CCA Contract – How it began – Modest Savings
In 2015, the Town Board discussed with residents the possibility of participating in a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program. The concept was simple and good – if a large number of users joined together to purchase huge numbers of kilowatt hours of electricity, they could negotiate a cheaper price. Supervisor Paul Feiner issued an email blast 9/29/15 claiming that participation in a CCA could reduce our Con Edison bills by “hundreds of dollars.”
In January of 2016, the Town Board passed a local law granting Westchester Power authority through a CCA program to procure electric supply from an ESCO (Energy Supply Company) for a two-year contract for all unincorporated Greenburgh residential and small business users who did not “Opt Out.” The program began with June 2016 meter read dates at a fixed cost of $0.0738 per kWh for the “Basic Supply Option” or $0.0768 for the “Green Option.” The cost was subsequently increased for residential users to $0.0770 per kWh for the “Basic Supply Option” and $ 0.0800 for the “Green Option.” There was no penalty to “Opt Out.”
In April 2018, residents received notice from Westchester Power that the rate of the soon-to-expire contract would “remain in place until your January 2019 meter read date.” No approval for this extension was given by the Town Board. Once again residents were made aware they could “Opt Out” of the program without penalty.
Resident Ken Stahn had opted out of the program. Despite his repeated requests to the Town over the two-year period, no information was provided to the thousands of residents and small business owners the Town Board had enrolled in this ESCO. Thus, unincorporated Greenburgh electricity users had no way of knowing whether they were actually saving money and/or whether they should take advantage of the “Opt Out” provision. The Council of Greenburgh Civic Association (CGCA) was asked to get involved. Following a unanimous vote at the June 19, 2018 CGCA meeting, a letter was sent to Supervisor Feiner seeking information.
The CGCA received a response. In an email blast on July 24, 2018, Mr. Feiner reported that over the 25-month period from June 2016 through June 2018, residents in the “Basic Supply Option” had saved an average $7.78/month, residents in the “Green Option” saved $6.00/month, small business owners in the “Basic Supply Option” saved $2.01/month, but it actually cost small business owners in the “Green Option” 22 cents a month.
However, for the very first time the public learned that only 52.67% of the savings actually came from the supply cost per kWh that had been negotiated. Much of the total savings (47.33%) came from a $1.20/month billing and processing payment charge to each customer and sales tax avoidance (3% for residential and 7.375% for small businesses) on the delivery portion of the monthly bill. Savings from avoiding these two charges had never been mentioned earlier. And, these two savings were not unique to the ESCO in which the Town enrolled users, but rather were available to any customer enrolled in any ESCO.
Second CCA Contract – Huge Loses
Although the savings had been modest, the Town Board nevertheless voted to continue participation in the CCA for another two-year contract. Beginning with the January 2019 meter read date, all residential and small business owners were enrolled for electric supply in the “Standard Option” at a cost of $0.07709 per kWh with the ESCO Constellation unless they “Opted Out.”
Resident Ken Stahn, who had opted out again, noted each month his Con Edison per kWh costs were lower than the 7.709¢ per kWh costs charged by the ESCO in which the Town had enrolled residential and small business owners. Mr. Stahn’s continued requests to the Town to provide information to the public were ignored.
Finally, on October 15, 2019, Westchester Power was invited to make a presentation at a Town Board work session. At that meeting it was revealed that the Town had enrolled a total of 11,777 unincorporated Greenburgh residential and small business owners in the ESCO Constellation. At the meeting, there was brief acknowledgement that the default Con Edison price for electric supply was at a historic low, but more time was spent blaming higher bills on Con Edison delivery charges. Praise was given for the metric tons of carbon saved – although Greenburgh deserved little credit since few were enrolled in the “Green” option. It was stated electric supply costs would probably increase next year and reference was made to saving money regarding a Community Solar Project. The need for a public update was mentioned, but there was no follow through.
Some CGCA representatives who had opted out of the CCA contract felt the Town Board should inform the public about the higher costs to them. Data was collected from the actual Con Edison bills of eight properties – five residential and three small businesses – from different areas. Seven of those properties had opted out of the CCA contract but one business was enrolled. The data revealed that the seven properties that had opted out had saved between $50 and $700 over the 12 billing periods starting in January 2019. The one business property enrolled by the Town in the ESCO actually paid more than $1,000 in additional costs over the 12-month period. Rest assured, that business promptly opted out when presented with this information!
At Mr. Stahn’s request, the Town Board invited Westchester Power to make another presentation at its March 10, 2020 work session. The representatives again acknowledged that Con Edison default rates were at historic lows. The presentation included a slide showing that those enrolled in the ESCO paid $1,133,210 more for supply, with the additional monthly costs being between $5.71 and $6.92 for residents and between $4.46 and $10.07 for businesses. However, it was emphasized that those enrolled still had savings over the past three years. Also emphasized was the amount of carbon saved, likely Con Edison cost increases later in the year, the community solar project and how helpful Westchester Power could be to utility users.
Ella Preiser, Dorrine Livson and Ken Stahn attended the meeting. Two tables were presented showing the data collected for the eight properties. Westchester Power representatives were dismissive of the data provided because it contained actual (four-decimal place) per kWh supply costs and did not include a small “Merchant function charge.” They emphasized Con Edison’s rates were unpredictable and the bill was difficult to read. The Town mentioned the need to provide information to the public. The next day (3/11/20) at the regular Town Board meeting, Mrs. Livson mentioned the more than one million dollar cost to Greenburgh users and tens of millions to other Westchester County electric users. She asked the Town to release such information. The Town once again remained silent.
At the April 22, 2020 meeting, held via Zoom, Mrs. Livson again asked the Town Board to inform the public about the electric costs. The Board agreed to invite Westchester Power to the first work session in May.
ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH?
See the attached table which has been revised and lists the one-decimal place costs Con Edison recommends to compare ESCO charges. To determine if you are paying too much, examine the electric supply page on your Con Edison bill and compare the cost per kWh with those shown on the table for the seven properties.
Contrary to the information presented on March 10, it may be costing you far more than the $6 to $10 per month Westchester Power mentioned. Just as an example, following is computation illustrating the cost differences of recent bills for Property #5 (residential) and Property #6 (business). As you can see Property #5 saved $37.15 in just one month and Property #6 saved $115.53 in one month.
1374 kWh @ 7.709¢/kWh = $105.92 + 4.24 (4% sales tax) = $110.02
1374 kWh @ 5.100¢/kWh = $ 70.07 + 2.80 (4% sales tax) = $ 72.87
4086 kWh @ 7.709¢/kWh = $314.99 + 26.38 (8.375% sales tax) = $341.37
4086 kWh @ 5.100¢/kWh = $208.39 + 17.45 (8.375% sales tax) = $225.84
Also note: Westchester Power cannot rely on 47% savings from other sources on this contract. The $1.20 per month billing and processing fee remained at $1.20 for businesses but was reduced to 60¢ per month for residents in 2019 and is now 64¢ per month. Since last spring, the monthly bills no longer mention sales tax avoidance (now 4% for residential and 8.375% for small businesses) on the delivery portion of the bill.
