Case Studies

City #2 hired a broker and signed a 9-year contract at a rate of .04040. They paid their broker a fee of .0009 to do the RFP. The broker refused to accept TCAP's bid. The 5-year price under TCAP would have been .03684 including our .0008 aggregation fee. So, the first 5 years they will pay $1.2 million more than with TCAP. For the final 4 years they will have to pay 1/2 t0 1-cent over the future market price.

Based on historic usage, City #3 will pay approximately $60,000 every year for the broker's provided RFP and presentation of bid results. TCAP's $0.0008 aggregation fee would have cost the City less than $12,000 per year, including a full spectrum of services and access to TCAP's industry expert consultants—none of which the broker offers.

City #4 will pay 13.6% more for having a broker write a simple RFP — while providing zero additional services. Included in TCAP's aggregation fee (lower than most broker's fees) is a spectrum of services as well as access to TCAP's paid, industry expert consultants.

City #5 procures a multi-year contract through a Retail Energy Provider (REP). The city builds a new, highly energy-effecient City Hall across the street from the one in use at the time of contract iniation. The contract language requires the City to pay a penalty for deleting the meter at the old City Hall. It also requires them to pay an "add" charge for the meter and service at the new building. The final bit they failed to notice in the language was that the rate they thought they'd "locked in" would be what they'd pay at the new facility. Surprise. Their new building is billed at a higher rate. TCAP, on the other hand, has no meter add or delete charges, pooling loads across its membership to absorb the financial impact or routine operational changes to the benefit of all.

City #6 hired a broker and signed two consecutive contracts: the first for three years, the second for an additional two years. In both cases, TCAP's rate was better. Had they chosen TCAP instead, City #6 would have saved nearly two-thirds of a million dollars in energy charges alone.