Individualized Portfolios and Power Supply Coalitions

Our members feel strongly about choice and optionality. They don’t want to be locked into inflexible long-term contracts where they are required to take power whether they need it or not.

Utilities participating with CMPAS benefit from industry expertise and coalitions that optimizes their portfolio and legacy systems through comprehensive planning. CMPAS believes that planning is the most important service it provides. After going through the process, utilities are strategically positioned for an uncertain future with a well planned power portfolio.

As a project-oriented agency, CMPAS provides information and power supply options, and public power utilities choose what works best for them.

In 2010, CMPAS formed a power supply coalition to examine if peer utilities with similar needs could use economies of scale to share planning costs and improve contract terms. After an initial coalition effort was completed, a second effort began in 2013 to plan for 2020 needs.

Throughout the planning process, CMPAS frequently consults with local staff and commissions to answer questions and determine the level of interest in pursuing various portfolio solutions. After receiving the go ahead, CMPAS issues a request for proposals (RFP). The collaborative benefits of the coalition planning exercise carryover to the request for proposal process. The group, as a coalition, benefits by obtaining more bids and competitive pricing than venturing alone.

“By planning ahead, we also use time to our advantage,” said Kyle Haemig, CMPAS resource planner/economist. “Our preliminary analysis indicated that a standard 5X16 (five weekdays, from 7 am to 10 pm) fixed price purchase would meet some of the needs of the coalition partners. However, as fixed prices fell, the strategy shifted from obtaining the same amount of power every month to a fixed price, long-term, shaped product that more closely tracks energy needs according to the season of the year.

For local economies heavily-based in food production, a seasonally-shaped product that provides fixed-price power during high volume times is a perfectly tailored option for the needs of a community-powered utility.