Both Brick Township’s Mayor and Council President took time this week to discuss a planned program to aggregate services for electrical energy consumers in town, which will ultimately lead to those residents receiving a marked cost savings on their energy bills.
Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis referenced the passage of a 2003 law allowing municipalities to aggregate services rendered to electrical energy customers, and noted Brick has roughly 26,000 residential dwellings that are billed for energy costs.
“Obviously, with 26,000 homes, you’re going to get a better price for electricity than just as one person,” said the mayor. The mayor added that those customers designated to be involved with the aggregation plan may voluntarily opt out at any time, if they so choose.
Acropolis pointed to Colonial Power Group as the group the township is considering to utilize for the aggregation arrangement. Colonial put in the most affordable bid for the plan, which seeks to generate over $200,000 in revenue for Brick Township each month, or a total cost savings of nearly $2.5 million per year.
“They recently made a presentation to the Business and Finance Committee, and we expect to see a presentation from them to the public at a council meeting in September,” Acropolis said.
Acropolis gave his preliminary approval of the aggregation concept with one specific caveat: that the projected annual savings of nearly $2.5 million are only earmarked for property tax relief, and not for use in the general fund come budget time.
“The only way I’ll agree to this is if that money goes to relief for the taxpayers,” said Acropolis.
Council President John Ducey also explained that the energy company will tentatively make a public presentation on the concept at the first township council meeting in September.
“We’d rather have the energy company come in and have their professionals explain the plan directly to the residents, rather than hearing about it from the council,” said Ducey.
Based on what he has learned of the planned arrangement thus far, Ducey appears to be in favor of the cost aggregation.
“It seems like a great idea. It makes money for the town, and relieves the taxpayers by making their energy bills lower,” said Ducey.
The council president added that after the energy company’s presentation is delivered, the council would then have a first reading for an ordinance on the aggregation program. Ducey explained that reading may occur at the same meeting in September when the presentation is given, or at the very next one following the presentation.
The SERC prices are going down, down, down... and if someone ran the numbers, the project may not be able to payback the loan.. so, in comes Acropolis... betcha part of the deal is purchasing power from Solar Project at current KWH prices charged to consumers!!! So, in effect, taxpayers are subsidizing the Solar Project 2 ways!!! through the loan and through the KWH purchases!!!
What was the contract that Brick signed with Comcast Dan? Do you know?
Also, for the record, FiOS is covered under a statewide franchise, so their presence in Brick has next to nothing to do with township government in the first place.
Also, you can review the NJ Cable Television Act for the statewide laws governing this stuff: N.J.S.A. 48:5A
To the best of my knowledge, local municipalities can't micromanage cable rates. The Brick franchise (which is pretty standard) specifies that the rates must comply with existing state regulations. That is regulated by the state Board of Public Utilities. More info at: http://www.nj.gov/bpu/about/divisions/cable/ The cable industry is somewhat misunderstood. I'm not defending the practices of cable companies (I'm a customer too... I see what goes on) but rising cable rates often have a lot to do with how much the cablecos are charged by the television stations themselves. ESPN alone, for example, gets around $5 per month, per subscriber. And that's one channel (well, a few now) out of hundreds. So while there is obviously profit and room for practices we customers often do not like, a lot of the charges are "pass through."
Regarding other local areas, my family has an account on the LBI system (which is tied to the TR system). The rates are virtually the same - in fact, I think they might be exactly the same now. The equipment fees are all identical. The history of the situation is that Brick is a semi-closed-off system since it was the former Stohrer Cable system. Toms River was part of the much larger Adelphia system, which stretched far south. LBI was "Island Cable," then TKR, then TCI, then AT&T Broadband, then Comcast. Comcast has tried to combine the Ocean County systems and unify the lineups, but the physical headends are different so there are subtle variations between the three of them (Brick, TR-Stafford-Little Egg and LBI).
Reminds me of those calls you get several times a week. You know those telemarketers who call and ask to speak to the person incharge of your electric bill. Well heck if they go with this and I get one of those calls I can give them Acropolis' and Duecys' home phone numbers and let them get calls during dinner.