Village of Hilton officials
unveil new municipal electric utility

Residents can now enjoy discounts on both gas and electric

Hey, did you hear the one about the guy who saved a bunch of money? It probably sounds like the setup line for a joke, but Hilton Mayor Bill Carter is hoping it is the beginning of positive word of mouth promoting the village's new electric utility.

Village residents can now select the Village of Hilton as their electric supplier. That choice should end up saving an active household between $60 and $100, about seven percent, this upcoming year.

"We're hoping that residents take advantage of this," Carter said. "We're hoping for 1,000 (the potential is a little more than 2,000 residents) which is an aggressive goal."

Supplying electric is the second phase of a plan launched in late 2000 with the passing of a referendum to create a gas and electric utility. In 2001, the village began offering gas. About 850 residents have participated in this program and have received an annual savings ranging from three- to five-percent. Carter said the recent global energy trends have made it difficult to offer as good of a deal on gas as he would like.

There are a couple things that make this endeavor different than the beginning of the gas service in 2001. First, the cost of electricity will be locked in annually and cannot fluctuate like the gas costs do. Second, the village has made changes to its billing service to reduce the number of glitches that happened with the 2001 launch.

"Since we switched companies, our billing issues have almost totally disappeared," Carter said. RG&E has offered to continue to facilitate the billing for the first few months of the program, until the village staff get everything setup. Residents who have already signed up with RG&E or another energy service can still switch to Hilton's municipal electric utility.

The village utility is able to provide a better rate than RG&E because the village does not make a profit on either of its utilities. The programs are developed to be not-for-profit and self-sufficient.

"This is not a taxpayer subsidized program," Carter said. "This program stands alone."

November 20, 2005