Delmarva Poultry Industry forms electric buying group

Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. (DPI), the trade association for the peninsula's chicken industry, has formed an electric buying group that is expected save its Delmarva Power electric customers more than $1 million over the next three years.
Over the last few months, DPI recruited its business and grower members to become part of the organization's seventh electric buying group. This effort has allowed DPI to execute a three-year fixed price electric supply contract with WGL Energy (formerly known as Washington Gas Energy Services). For the more than 200 DPI members in the program, their new fixed rate will be 7.78 cents per kilowatt-hour and that should result in a substantial savings versus their expiring rate. According to DPI, his is the second lowest contract rate executed for electricity since the first DPI Electric Buying Group in 2006.
Additionally, the fixed generation supply price of 7.78 cents per kilowatt-hour also is substantially lower than Delmarva Power's equivalent default tariff supply rates that members would have paid had they not become part of the DPI buying group.
By banding together more than 200 DPI members and their nearly 500 electric accounts in the 7th Electric Buying Group, DPI was able to leverage its buying power for the benefit of the entire group through a rigorous vendor selection process. Over the three-year life of the agreement, DPI estimates its members will save more than one million dollars.
State laws allow groups like DPI to aggregate their Delmarva Power customers together to buy electricity at a lower rate. DPI is not permitted to offer such a program to its members served by the A & N Electric Cooperative, the Choptank Electric Cooperative, the Delaware Electric Cooperative, or members served by municipal electric systems.