Wildwood Empowers Businesses and Residents to Save on Utility Bills

WILDWOOD — By joining forces with other local municipalities, Wildwood residents and businesses will soon see savings in their utility bills. City Commissioners recently adopted an ordinance allowing Commercial Utility Consortium (CUC) of Sewell to bid for lower energy prices.
John Fish, Business Development Agent for CUC, explained how the company was able to purchase energy at lower rates via an energy auction. According to Fish, by banding together with other local municipalities, local governments, commercial customers and residential customers can purchase electricity and natural gas at lower prices.
Municipalities in Cape May County participating in the energy auction include Middle Township and Stone Harbor. Commercial Township in Cumberland County and Egg Harbor City in Atlantic County also participate.
“Using the state average of 8,500 kilowatt hours, a residential customer should see a one to two month savings” in their power bill, explained Fish. He added natural gas savings would be a smaller percentage.
In 2003, the State of New Jersey approved the Government Energy Aggregation Act (GEA) allowing local municipalities to bundle together to purchase less expensive energy. In 2012, residents were allowed to join in that bundling. Under the terms of the GEA, residents are automatically signed up with the program, unless they are currently using a third party supplier or choose to opt out.
Residents and business owners will receive a mailing from CUC in the near future. Those wishing to opt out may simply return the tear off portion of the letter indicating if they want to opt out of the program for electricity, natural gas, or both.
“We see no reason why they would want to opt out,” said Fish, noting participation has no strings attached nor costs involved.
“Anything we can do as community leaders to help reduce the cost of living here is a plus,” said Mayor Ernie Troiano. “If the city can save you $100 over the course of a year, it’s a good thing.”