The Athens County Commissioners want to hire someone from the area who can help the county set up an electric aggregation program, which officials have said would make energy cheaper for residents by giving the government the authority to buy on their behalf.
A consultant would help the county file paperwork and find interested energy suppliers, among other administrative actions, said Commissioner Chris Chmiel.
Roger Wilkins, who spoke at a meeting Tuesday on behalf of Energy Planning Associates, L.L.C., urged the commissioners to hire a local consulting firm instead of one from out of town.
“For aggregation to work really well, we really need to have local administration of the aggregation process,” Wilkins said. “It won’t work to have a consultant from Toledo or somewhere else trying to mesh with local projects.”
Wilkins presented a common three-year plan that he said he has heard from energy suppliers that Energy Planning Associates would help the county carry out.
“The first year would emphasize two things: reduced cost of electricity, which we’re buying from a grid, and energy efficiency measures, which will enable people around the county to use less electricity,” he said.
In the second year, he said “a certain amount of renewable power” would be added. And finally, the capacity to generate local power would be introduced in the third year.
Chmiel said he is in favor of hiring local companies and pointed to one in particular, Energy Planning Associates, because he thinks a company from Athens that knows the area would work best with the community.
“I guess what I’m excited about is adding an Athens flavor to our aggregation project,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement about what we can do as a progressive community, and I think that’s why we need to have this local assistance based out of Athens.”
But before County Commissioner Lenny Eliason would make a final decision to hire Energy Planning Associates, he said he wanted the contract between the firm and the company to be reviewed by the county prosecutor and possibly rewritten.
He also said he wanted to look into all available options, such as working with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio or other consulting agencies.
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