Mayor Menino sites early milestone for innovative initiative
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) Director Evelyn Friedman today announced that the City has released a formal Request for Responses (RFR) for qualified energy brokers or consultants to create an energy buying group for Boston’s small business sector.
The RFR reflects the City’s continued commitment to assisting the small business community by creating an innovative, cost-saving initiative designed to harness buying power through access to the unregulated energy market.
“These difficult economic times are being felt by Bostonians across the board, and the City wants to help. This is the first step in a create initiative that will support our small business community,” Mayor Menino said. “We believe an energy buying group could set the stage for valuable cost savings in gas and electric bills every month.”
Mayor Menino first announced the initiative at a City-sponsored small business symposium and resource fair held in June, and said the City arrived at the idea at a time when many small businesses are facing rising materials and services costs. Mayor Menino most recently announced a “Food and Fuel Campaign,” an initiative designed to help Boston residents deal specifically with the increased costs of groceries and heat this winter.
DND’s Office of Business Development (OBD), held a focus group last May at which businesses discussed the idea and gave City staff positive feedback that reinforced the idea that this would be a valuable program to develop. The department then spent several months exploring the steps needed to create the buying consortium, which, as the RFR describes, will involve an independent energy broker to work directly with businesses to procure energy supply and monitor the energy market. The partnership will afford businesses from across the City to come together to purchase electricity and gas as a large group at a long-term fixed price.
DND director Evelyn Friedman said most small businesses utilize major servicers for gas and electricity service, and pay a pre-determined cost for access to the market, as well as the cost a company charges to bring the service to the customer’s door. With the purchasing consortium in place, participating businesses will still pay for the delivery, but will pay less for the energy itself because the partnership will access the energy market directly and have the ability to negotiate lower prices.
“It’s our desire to provide an opportunity for Boston’s small businesses to have much more control over their utility bills in this period of high market volatility and to obtain some certainty about their energy costs,” said DND Director Evelyn Freidman. “We think this is one way that the Menino administration can make a difference.”
Friedman said the Energy Partnership is part of the City’s continued effort to better assist businesses throughout Boston's commercial districts, highlighting the fact that the Mayor had established DND’s Office of Business Development years ago to provide entrepreneurs and existing businesses access to financial and technical resources.
Today, OBD offers a full range of services -- from financial and referral services, to business facade improvement and small service loans, to networking events – in order to ensure that Boston business owners get the support they need to succeed.
OBD also supports the nationally-recognized Boston Main Streets program, which was created by Mayor Menino in 1995. With an impressive 19 districts in the program today, Boston Main Streets is devoted to the continued revitalization of Boston's neighborhood commercial districts.
Friedman said the RFR has been advertised in local news publications and is available at DND’s Bid Counter, 10th floor, 26 Court Street, Boston. Responses are due on or before Wednesday, September 24th, at 4:00 P.M.
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