Associates
In a deregulated market, the end-user is allowed to purchase a commodity (electricity or gas) from a marketer, but still have that commodity delivered by the same local utility company through existing pipes or wires.
Purely a paper transaction, the change is invisible to the client, with the exception that now the client can negotiate with the marketer instead of having prices and terms dictated by the utility company.
Thus, our electricity and gas procurement service can assist you in negotiation and cost savings.
It is actually quite common for utility companies to have to purchase - from other generation companies, producers, or marketers - the electricity or gas which they in turn sell to their customer base.
In our electricity and gas procurement service, we understand that deregulation allows the retail end-user to go to those same producers or marketers and structure their own deals; something that (in the case of natural gas) has always been allowed for the very large user.
With “bundled” service, a customer pays the utility company a single amount for the combined product of the commodity (electricity or gas) and the delivering of that commodity through the utility’s already established network of pipes or wires. The customer also enjoys the other benefits it has come to depend on from the utility: reliability, customer service, assistance during outages, meter-reading, rebates, etc.
A bundled bill has contained within it a line item for all of those services (although they may not be delineated on the bill). Our electricity and natural gas procurement service manages this bundling.
With deregulation, the utility continues to charge for everything except the commodity portion of the bill, but continues to provide – and charge for – all the previously mentioned services. The customer pays the producer or marketer for the commodity and the utility continues to deliver that commodity.
Once our utility audit is finished, we submit a complete report of our findings to the client. We implement the corrections authorized by you, and do all the correspondence and negotiation with the utility companies until final resolution; which may include a refund.
We stay involved not only to make sure that the corrections we request are implemented properly, but also to calculate savings and determine the financial success of our recommendations, which we in turn supply to the client in a detailed report.
Upon receipt of proposals, McKenzie & Associates evaluates the offers and recommends in writing the best advantage pricing to the client for approval.
Contracts for all sites within any given region or state can either be negotiated so that renewal dates are uniform, or in a staggered fashion if desired by the client for hedging purposes.
Once proposals have been received, evaluated and an offer approved by the client, we will process the contract back to the supplier in a timely fashion.
Proper follow-up will be conducted to ensure that documents are in place by start date and the vendor is following the necessary timetable for timely implementation.
We will coordinate any required billing info with the client’s “bill pay” partner.
As invoices are received by our client, we audit both commodity and transportation charges from the supplier and the transporting utility, respectively. We verify that pricing from the supplier is being billed as per agreement and from the utility as per filed tariff.
Pricing discrepancies are addressed with the supplier and managed to resolution. All recoveries and reimbursement from the vendor will be returned to the client.
We monitor contract status to effect timely renewal and possibly take advantage of favorable market pricing.
We provide quarterly reports on both contract status and savings achieved. Savings will be calculated based upon the differential between the amount paid by the client and the “bundled” utility's price, if there is one.