Businesses, Residents to Save Money on Energy Bill

Good news for West Orange residents and businesses — they should be seeing some savings in energy costs soon.

The West Orange Township Council has awarded a contract to Gable Associates to implement a competitive bidding process for a third party supplier, TPS, to provide power supply to West Orange residents and businesses, Mayor Robert Parisi announced Monday. 

“We are pleased to have found and implement a new initiative that significantly saves our taxpayers money. I am confident that Gable Associates will provide quality energy consulting services and strategic insight to help us achieve this goal which will collectively save West Orange residents and businesses on their energy bills," Parisi said.

Gable Associates — an energy, environmental and public utility consulting firm — will assist the township throughout the process of implementing the aggregation program. 

Municipal aggregation allows townships to enter into agreements with energy brokers to purchase energy at reduced costs with no out-of-pocket expenses to the township. The state-registered energy agent will be paid by the selected supplier.

The program empowers the community to use its collective purchasing power to receive a bulk rate for their energy. This ensures that prices will remain lower than the average retail price charged to customers purchasing their energy from the utility.

“We expect to see an immediate decrease in the utilities bills of customers who participate in the program," Parisi said. “I’m sure our residents would agree that a reduction in utility costs is a good thing.”

Residents will be automatically enrolled in the new energy aggregation program. If a resident has already switched to a third party supplier (TPS) or wishes to opt out, they will not be included in the program.

New Jersey is only one of six states nationwide that allow municipalities to aggregate the supply of electricity on behalf of residents.