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Electricity will be getting attention in the Penn-Trafford School District.

School directors voted last night to utilize On Demand Energy Solutions of Moon Township as an electricity procurement consultant and Clear Choice Energy of Pittsburgh as a demand response contractor.

Each agreement is for one year.

Business Manager Brett Lago explained the cap on electricity costs for Allegheny Power customers will expire Jan. 1, 2011.

"It will be to the district's benefit to shop the open market for our electricity," Lago said. "It may be possible we'll go with Allegheny Power; it may be possible that there's another firm out there that will provide that power to us."

With that in mind, the school district will bring in On Demand Energy Solutions to help in the process of finding an electricity provider.

"They will package all their school customers in a consortium," Lago said. "They will be helping us in the process through the period of buying power on the open market."

Clear Choice Energy specializes in a program in which institutions agree to reduce power consumption during an electrical emergency.

If there is an incident between July 1 and Sept 30 — such as a brownout or blackout -- Clear Choice would call the district and ask for a reduction in energy consumption.

"They'll pay us for participating in that program," Lago said, adding the fee could fall somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000. "If for some reason we can't meet their demands to reduce our electricity during times of emergency, there's no penalty to the district."

In such a case, the district would receive a prorated share of the money agreed upon with Clear Choice.

"There really is no downside," Lago said. "We'll do a test to see if we can reduce in an emergency to what they require us to."

Lago told the board the district's energy consumption is lower during the summer, and the power should be able to be reduced.

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