By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — Interested in saving money, residents and merchants of Lambertville?
If so, would you like to do it on your electric bill?
Here’s your chance.
On March 27, city officials will host a public meeting on an innovative plan that could provide discounted electric power rates to residents and businesses city-wide.
Called “community aggregation,” the program would allow the city to bulk-purchase discounted electricity from a third-party generator on behalf of all Lambertville ratepayers.
Currently, the majority of residents and businesses are provided energy from JCP&L, with others purchasing energy from third-party providers — such as Dominion Energy or Green Mountain Energy — on their own.
By combining all residential and small commercial customers into a single pool, savings can be made available that individual customers would not necessarily attain by entering into agreements on their own.
”Lambertville has a unique opportunity to be one of the first communities in the entire state to take advantage of this innovative way to save ratepayers money on their electric bills,” said Mayor David Del Vecchio.
”Two-thirds of the average residential and commercial electric bill covers the actual cost of the electricity that flows through the building. We have a very real chance to save residents and small business owners potentially hundreds of dollars a year,” the mayor added.
The meeting will be held 7 p.m. March 27, at the Phillip L. Pittore Justice Center at 25 S. Union St.
Presenting and answering questions will be representatives from Simec, an Illinois-based energy services company that has worked with about 50 communities in that state on community aggregation projects.
Mayor Del Vecchio likened the community aggregation proposal to the city’s and local schools’ own participation in the ACES electric power program, which allows public entities to come together to bulk-purchase electricity at discounted rates.
The mayor noted that the city’s own participation in ACES saves taxpayers roughly 15 percent against that delivered by JCP&L.
”If we can provide private ratepayers the same savings we receive as government entities, there’s no reason we shouldn’t look at community aggregation,” said Mayor Del Vecchio.
The mayor said that if the city enters into a community aggregation contract with a third-party provider, residents would have the ability to simply opt-out of the program and continue to receive power from their current provider.
All business owners would be given the ability to opt-in to the program. The mayor said residents or business owners who take advantage of community aggregation would see no change in the way power is delivered and would continue to pay their electric bills just as they currently do. Only the source of the energy would change.
For additional information, visit: www.lambertvillenj.org.

