Achieving Affordable Clean Monthly Electric Bills in Athens, OH

NLC Immediate Past President, Mayor Steve Patterson from Athens, Ohio, joins CitiesSpeak to discuss his city’s community choice aggregation green power program. The electric program helps residents use clean energy and save money on their monthly electric bills.

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Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 0:07

Welcome back to Cities Speak. I'm your host, Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability with the National League of Cities. Cities Speak gives listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversation with government leaders and policy experts regarding the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Today we have a special guest in the NLC studio, NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson from Athens, Ohio. Mayor Patterson is speaking later today on Capitol Hill about his community's community choice aggregation program, which is helping residents use clean energy to save money on their monthly electric bills. Mayor Patterson, welcome to Cities Speak. Tell us what brought you to NLC in Washington, D.C.

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 1:08

Well, Carolyn, how are you? It's good seeing you. Good to see you. One of the things that brought me here is obviously speaking over at the Rayburn this afternoon, talking about community choice electric aggregation. But I came in early, so I thought, what the heck? I'm going to come and visit at NLC headquarters and get to see the rearrangement of the digs up here, which has been a lot of fun. So yeah, I it's going to be a lot of fun being on the Hill and talking about how community choice electric aggregation works for cities and works for the citizens of those cities to save them money, but also depending on however the CCA, the community choice aggregation, is constructed, it could also be helping save the environment, depending on whatever products those community choice aggregations have.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 1:59

Well the NLC office is your city hall away from home, so we're glad that you're here. So tell us more about what exactly community choice electric aggregation is.

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 2:16

Natural gas aggregation is also a component of CCAs. It's like buying energy or natural gas on kind of a Costco scale. I'll speak a little bit to Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council, which is the electric aggregation, the CCA, that Athens helped stand up in 2014. In 2014, the city of Athens, Athens County in Southeast Ohio, and the small village of Amesville, which has a population of 142 people. Actually, now they're up to 142 people. But back in the day, the three of us got together and formed a council of governments and applied to become a CCA and were successful in doing so. Now the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council is up to over 50 municipalities, to include the City of Dayton, the City of Cleveland, Upper Arlington, so big cities as opposed to where we started or 12 years ago. And as we've grown in size and in municipal partners, it has allowed us to leverage even better pricing when we have to go out every two years. You can do one-year, two-year, or three-year aggregation contracts. And we've found over time that that two-year is probably the sweet spot for going after contracts for electric purchasing electricity on the market.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 4:27

And it's great to hear that you have regional buy-in and support for this because that's one of the keys to success, I believe. What are some of the benefits that you're seeing in Athens with this program now in terms of residential and your own municipal buildings?

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 4:44

You know, you certainly there's cost savings that can be experienced, you know, depending on how your community choice aggregation is set up. But there's also an environmental return on investment with uh whether or not you have a green product in your portfolio. And in 2016, um SOPEC, Sustainable Health Ohio Public Energy Council, had a 100% renewable energy product that we were using in my community, the city of Athens, Ohio. The city loves that. Um, you know, as a super environmentally forward-thinking progressive city that is Athens. That while we paid a little bit more than the price to compare for energy, we were also, you know, kind of paying you know, big return on investment in dividends is the fact that our citizens have a hundred percent renewable product and they really enjoy that. So so there's can be a certainly a financial savings to customers within a CCA, but then there also can be an environmental payback if you have something like we do with a green product. And there's a lot of CCAs out there across the nation that um have a portfolio to where they have traditional energy. Um they may have um a green product, or they may have a blend um to where it's partially coming from renewables and um and then also coming from traditional energy sources or nuclear. Um there's a number of CCAs out there to where their energy is coming straight from um nuclear power plants.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 6:26

That's interesting. So I know when we were together um in New York City for Climate Week last fall, I know we talked a lot about housing and affordability and climate and the intersection of all that. And this is really important to you and the city of Athens. So, how has community choice aggregation helped residents achieve your goals around affordability and housing and climate?

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 6:49

Yeah, with within that space, one of the things that we've been really intentional is we're we have a small housing um project that's going on in the city of Athens with affordable housing, and SOPEC, the Sustainable Health Public Energy Council, has been helpful with this, to where we're going to be building a number of new homes that are going to sell for about $180,000 apiece in the city of Athens. That's pretty inexpensive when you look at the rest of our housing profile. But these houses, I was able to negotiate in and with the help of SOPEC to have solar on the rooftops of these brand new homes. So someone's not only buying a brand new house that is cost effective for them, the energy feeding into that house is going to be partially powered by the sun, which you know to me is a win-win for an individual. So it's going to reduce not only is their mortgage going to be lower than most of our mortgage rates in the city of Athens for this home, they're also going to lower their energy bill by having solar on the rooftop. One of the other things, just to share with you really quick, which I want to I I brag on Athens all the time about being able to do this, is that in 2018, with the help of our CCA, that we put a ballot initiative out there for the citizens to vote on, to where 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour was added to their electric bill, which amounts to about $1.80 extra a month, you know, which is it's cheaper than a cup of coffee in most coffee shops in the city. Um it passed by 76 percent of the vote to where uh it generates about $100,000 a year, and that money can only be used for renewable energy on municipal um buildings in the city of Athens. Um and SOPAC is what helped us get to that point, you know, to even think about this. We hadn't even contemplated something like this. And it was actually the executive director at the time, a guy named Eddie Smith, who said, you know what, I think maybe the appetite in the city of Athens is there to pay a little bit extra and that the voters would come out and vote in this, and they certainly did, 76 percent. We have used that money with the help of SOPAC to basically begin um the savings for um a substantial solar array in the city of Athens, which is about 2.5 megawatt solar array, which is behind the meter for my w my wastewater treatment plant, number one energy consuming account for the city of Athens. I think that's the case in most municipalities. Um it's feeding that, it's feeding my community center, which is like my number four on our energy consumption list. Our seasonal swimming pool is powered 95% by the sun, which is really pretty cool. Um and um so this 2.5 megawatt solar array um will be the debt on that will be paid down using this revenue that comes in from our carbon fee. Um so again, I am so sold on community choice aggregation. Number one, because of the buying power that you have, you have a lot of leverage, and it's uh the the larger your CCA grows with new members, the the better the buying power you have when you're you know out on the market trying to negotiate lower prices or to negotiate in, like I said, green energy if that's what you're interested in.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 10:27

That's amazing to hear. So you mentioned a few other regional communities you're working with, but are there any others in southeastern Ohio that you're helping to design their own programs?

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 10:38

There are several. I mean, with SOPEC and in full transparency to everybody, I'm on the board of Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council. So we're always looking to one attract more members and to grow, but we're also working with others. Um we have pace financing to where we've been able to use that in some of the smaller villages. Racine is a very small village in Southeast Ohio. They have a population of about a hundred and or six hundred citizens right on the Ohio River. Um SOPAC worked very closely with the mayor, Mayor Scott Hill in Racine, because he wanted to put solar on his his fire station, and we were able to help him. He also wanted lighting, solar lighting in his community, so we were able to kind of help with or at least energy efficient street lighting in the city or village of Racine. Um and SOPEC was able to help with that as well. Um SOPEC, like uh a number of other uh CCAs, has a program to where there is a return that comes back, financial return that comes back to the municipality in as kind of a rebate. Um and so Racine was able to use their rebate for energy efficiencies. Um other communities have done this as well. I mentioned the small village of Amesville, they've been able to capitalize on this too. So there's a there's a real win that we're seeing not just in Southeast Ohio, but we're seeing some major advancements taking place in the bigger bigger cities. Dayton has a big project that SOPEC has been helping them with that we'll be deploying in in the not too distant future.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 12:23

It's really exciting to hear all the great work you're doing in Athens in this area. And I hope you've inspired many listeners today. Um so for anyone who wants to get started with community choice aggregation, um, what would be your recommendation? What's the first thing they should do?

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 12:40

You know, number one, look in your state to see, you know, who are the electric aggregators out there. Or and again, gas, if that's kind of what your thing is, um, and identify who they are, um, do your homework and and look into what kinds of products does that community choice aggregation, electric aggregator or gas aggregator, what do they offer? Um, because there's some that i uh every CCA is a little bit different. Um and I would encourage them to do your homework, um see who's out there, see what their products are. If you're interested in green energy, make sure they've got that in their portfolio, because if they don't, then they're not for you. Um and then I would then the other thing I would do is contact other municipalities that are members of said CCA and talk to the mayors or city council members because usually it takes council action to become for a city, town, or village to become part of a CCA if it's gonna be municipal-wide, um, which is what was our case back in the day. So talk to other mayors, um, city managers or council members in municipalities that are part of a CCA and get the scoop straight from them. You know, to find out are you seeing savings? You know, are your are your customers happy with this?

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 14:01

And what's the answer for Athens? You're probably gonna get a lot of phone calls now from the local leaders.

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 14:06

Call Athens, call me anytime. Easy to find. You Google Athens, Ohio, uh in mayor's office, and I will talk to you any day, all day long. It's the the stuff is it's uh to me, it's uh it's really rewarding when your citizens are happy with their electric or gas pricing, and that's only possible through a community choice aggregation.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 14:29

So to close us out, you're gonna go up to the hill. Um as you mentioned, what's the message you want to leave those hill staffers that are gonna be in the room? What are they what do you want them to know? What's your main takeaway for them?

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 14:41

I think the main takeaway is that community choice electric aggregation or gas aggregation is saving municipal taxpayer dollars to put towards other projects in your community. And that's what we as city leaders are supposed to be doing. We're financially responsible and good stewards of the city taxpayers' money that comes in to our general revenue, and CCAs really help with that, to where you're able to, you know, take what was a large electric bill for a lot of your electric counts and make that lower, more cost effective, and then now I can sit there and redeploy taxpayer dollars to other things. So that's one of the big messages. And the m the other message would be is you know, we are there to educate people on what community choice aggregation is so that at some point, you know, we can have congressional members recognize I I know a little bit about this community choice aggregation and what it may mean to the municipalities out there, but this is a role I think where NLC that we should be walking right through that door and helping to you know inform people that CCAs, you know, whether it's gas or electricity, um, can lead to some substantial savings for residents of your communities.

Carolyn Barrett, Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities 15:53

That's great. And now it's more important than ever, as as we're seeing. Mayor Patterson, thank you for joining us for Cities Speak and for everything you do for NLC in Athens, Ohio. It was great to learn more about how the city is committed to renewable energy as a means of reducing energy bills and costs for residents. So thank you for being here.

NLC immediate past President Mayor Steve Patterson, Athens, Ohio 16:13

Thanks for having me.

NLC 16:22

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