{"id":82,"date":"2010-09-23T17:40:17","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T17:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=82"},"modified":"2010-09-23T18:05:05","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T18:05:05","slug":"electricity-procurement-initiative-saves-5-6-million-for-county-governments-municipalities-schools-police-fire-and-non-profit-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"Electricity procurement initiative saves $5.6 million for county governments, municipalities, schools, police , fire and non-profit organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>WEST CHESTER \u2014 Chester County, along with the Chester County Intermediate Unit, all Chester County school districts, Montgomery County and various municipalities, fire and police and non-profit organizations will save an estimated $5.6 million over the next two and a half years through an electricity procurement initiative.<\/p>\n

Chester County\u2019s Board of Commissioners led the collaboration with the Chester County Intermediate Unit and invited county school districts, surrounding counties and local municipalities to join together to procure electricity as a group. The group that opted to participate then entered into a \u201creverse auction\u201d to gain energy savings.<\/p>\n

The electricity procurement initiative helps address some of the strategic priorities of the Chester County Commissioners. \u201cPart of our strategic plan is to exercise smart financial management and make government cost effective for taxpayers,\u201d said Chester County Commissioner Chair Carol Aichele.<\/p>\n

County Commissioner Terence Farrell said:\u00a0 \u201cStaff in our Department of Procurement and General Services and Department of Facilities Management researched the possibilities for collaboration in electricity procurement, and developed an innovative approach in dealing with the issue of electricity deregulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative is a great model for how collaborative efforts among governmental entities can have a positive outcome on cost savings for everyone,\u201d added Commissioner Kathi Cozzone.<\/p>\n

Joe Lubitsky, director of administrative services for the Chester County Intermediate Unit, agrees that this is a good example of how schools, municipalities, non-profits and other organizations can work together to achieve significant savings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had observed other parts of the commonwealth experiencing 20 to 40 percent (electricity) rate increases and began to aggressively seek solutions to lessen the impact on our local economy,\u201d said Lubitsky.\u00a0 \u201cPrior experience working with the Chester County Joint Purchasing Board for school supplies and the Health Care Consortium for medical coverage taught us that working together and bidding for services as one entity should result in considerable cost reductions and reduced rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

All 12 Chester County school districts worked collaboratively with the county, and based on the needs of each district and its power profile, were able to capitalize on the consortia\u2019s purchasing power to reduce district rates, on average, by eight percent.<\/p>\n

Participating school districts include:\u00a0 Avon Grove, Coatesville Area, Downingtown Area, Great Valley, Kennett Consolidated, Octorara Area, Owen J. Roberts, Oxford Area, Phoenixville Area, Tredyffrin-Easttown, Unionville Chadds Ford and West Chester Area.<\/p>\n

The municipal governments participating are Montgomery County, and West Grove, Charlestown, East Pikeland, East Vincent, Schuylkill, Upper Uwchlan, West Whiteland, Westtown, East Coventry, North Coventry and East Goshen townships.<\/p>\n

The non-profits and other municipal organizations are the Devereux Foundation, Valley Forge Volunteer Fire Company and the Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST CHESTER \u2014 Chester County, along with the Chester County Intermediate Unit, all Chester County school districts, Montgomery County and various municipalities, fire and police and non-profit organizations will save an estimated $5.6 million over the next two and a half years through an electricity procurement initiative. Chester County\u2019s Board of Commissioners led the collaboration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}