I began this quest to improve the position of ‘Joe Homeowner’ within this tangled mess of electricity deregulation over four years ago. Even today, I remain committed to advocate for all residential customers in Texas adversely affected.
In March ‘07, I volunteered to serve for my community HOA (Homeowners Association) as a one-man electricity committee with a two-fold objective. First mission was to convince the governing board to switch the commercial accounts of the development away from Reliant to one of the alternative REPs for substantial savings. This mission was accomplished. This project began my thirst for more knowledge.
Second goal was to explore the creation of an opt-in aggregation for the two thousand single family households in the community. That project never really advanced due to non-support from the HOA and its management company for reasons not agreed with even today.
Phase two of this endeavor began in September ‘09. At the urging of some friends and neighbors, the aggregation project was resurrected. A committee of several volunteer residents was formed and work began with limited support from the HOA. The committee selected an energy consulting and aggregator partner after extensive study and consideration of the various options for moving forward.
That partner firm forwarded RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for building the aggregation to several REPs for competitive bidding. The process concluded with the business being awarded to one REP. Sign-ups to the aggregation began 1 September 2010. Those sign-ups were terminated on 1 December after discovering the REP providing service had become non-competitive in the marketplace.
Incentives for joining the aggregation had vanished. Thus, the aggregation effort failed and was abandoned. Of special note here is the fact that PUC rules and regulations and the business models of the REPs make the formation of any residential aggregation impossible to achieve.
Our residential aggregation effort was not the first undertaken and to fail. The treatment of residential customers individually and not collectively is the name of the game for the REPs. The sign over the door reads no collective bargaining allowed.
The online publication of this blog, which actually began over a year ago, and the conduct of the education and awareness campaign constitutes phase three. It is now time to embark on phase four.
THE ELECTRICITY GUY….
In March ‘07, I volunteered to serve for my community HOA (Homeowners Association) as a one-man electricity committee with a two-fold objective. First mission was to convince the governing board to switch the commercial accounts of the development away from Reliant to one of the alternative REPs for substantial savings. This mission was accomplished. This project began my thirst for more knowledge.
Second goal was to explore the creation of an opt-in aggregation for the two thousand single family households in the community. That project never really advanced due to non-support from the HOA and its management company for reasons not agreed with even today.
Phase two of this endeavor began in September ‘09. At the urging of some friends and neighbors, the aggregation project was resurrected. A committee of several volunteer residents was formed and work began with limited support from the HOA. The committee selected an energy consulting and aggregator partner after extensive study and consideration of the various options for moving forward.
That partner firm forwarded RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for building the aggregation to several REPs for competitive bidding. The process concluded with the business being awarded to one REP. Sign-ups to the aggregation began 1 September 2010. Those sign-ups were terminated on 1 December after discovering the REP providing service had become non-competitive in the marketplace.
Incentives for joining the aggregation had vanished. Thus, the aggregation effort failed and was abandoned. Of special note here is the fact that PUC rules and regulations and the business models of the REPs make the formation of any residential aggregation impossible to achieve.
Our residential aggregation effort was not the first undertaken and to fail. The treatment of residential customers individually and not collectively is the name of the game for the REPs. The sign over the door reads no collective bargaining allowed.
The online publication of this blog, which actually began over a year ago, and the conduct of the education and awareness campaign constitutes phase three. It is now time to embark on phase four.
THE ELECTRICITY GUY….
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