He attributed the rising cost to an electric generation tax nearly triple what it was when the last contract was signed, along with fewer coal and gas plants.
“To make it pretty clear and simple: You can’t keep getting rid of generation plants and not replacing them with electricity producing plants,‘’ Deters said.
“The demand keeps going up but the supply has been going down because they’ve been retiring coal plants and gas plants around this part of the country.”
The township’s two-year electric aggregation contract with Dynegy ends with each participant’s July meter reading, Deters said. Those enrolled are paying 6.78 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity used.
On average, the 9,000 enrollees – with an average monthly usage of 1,000 kilowatts – will have saved about $500 over the two-year period when compared with the Duke Energy rate, Deters said.
Trustees have given township Administrator Caroline McKinney permission to sign a new contract with a supplier on Deters recommendation. McKinney said that’s been done four times in the past.
Duke’s new electric rates for June 2025 through May 2026 should be filed in the next week or so, Deters said. Once those are filed, Energy Alliances will get the most current rates from their suppliers.
Provided they remain below Duke’s rates – right now they are – Deters will make a recommendation to McKinney on which supplier to sign with.
“The market has been volatile. Rates (for all suppliers) change every day. The market goes up and down. We have to strike when the iron is hot,‘’ Deters said.
“Our offering is not going to be above Duke’s price – if that were the case, we’d recommend staying with Duke.”
Deters said he expects Duke’s rate to be in the high nine cents per kilowatt.
“We know (aggregate price) it’s going to be savings. We just know that savings is going to be a little bit tighter than it was the last time,” Deters said.
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