Farmers, Businesses to Save More Than $600,000 Through DPI Electric Buying Group

Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. (DPI) negotiated with electricity providers to secure a new supply rate for its members in a new electric buying group that is 11 percent lower than the supply rate in DPI’s expiring electric buying group. The result: Hundreds of DPI members, including farmers and businesses, will realize significant savings on their electricity bills.

The formation of the electric buying group allowed DPI to enter into a three-year agreement with NRG, an electricity supplier, after negotiating with several electricity supply companies. For the 200 members of DPI’s buying group, their new fixed electricity supply rate will be 7 cents per kilowatt-hour. That’s 11 percent lower than the expiring three-year contract’s 7.9-cent rate. The new contract’s supply rate is one of the lowest multiyear rates secured by any DPI electric buying group since the first group was formed in 2006, and this year’s group is the largest DPI has ever had.

Over the three-year life of the electric buying group, its members are expected to save more than $600,000. On average, each member will save more than $1,000 a year in electricity costs. Each DPI member included in the new contract will receive a letter from DPI over the next two weeks with additional contract details, including specific savings to be realized. Also for the first time, DPI negotiated the ability to add a limited number of new members to the new contract at the negotiated rate of 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.

“Our electric buying group leverages the buying power of Delmarva’s chicken community to benefit DPI members,” said Bill Satterfield, DPI’s executive director. “Participating in the electric buying group allows many DPI members to earn back their membership dues many times over in utility savings.”

State laws allow groups like DPI to aggregate their Delmarva Power customer members to buy electricity at a negotiated fixed rate. DPI is not able to offer such a program to its members served by the A&N Electric Cooperative, the Choptank Electric Cooperative, the Delaware Electric Cooperative, or to members served by municipal electric systems.