A. Over 2000 businesses have joined BBP since its release in late 2008. These companies include small commercial storefronts, apartment and condo buildings, restaurants, colleges, manufacturing and many, many more. Any business qualifies, as long you have a non-residential utility account. Boston Buying Power can competitively procure your electricity, natural gas and demand response programs. If you have any questions about the qualifications, please contact your BBP representative.

A. While Boston Buying Power was started by Mayor Menino for the businesses in Boston, the City welcomes all neighboring cities to join the aggregation. This program, which was the first of its type, became a model for similar programs in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Whether your business is in another part of Massachusetts, or another state altogether, we invite you to enroll and discover what aggregation may be available in your market.

A. Your local utility company will always remain your distribution company, including the maintenance, metering and critical needs of your power lines. With deregulation, all customers are able to choose their supply source, whether purchasing from the utility or an independent approved supplier. The utilities are considered a 'provider of last resort' and will always deliver the power to your meter. The utility is not permitted, by regulation, to make a profit on the sale of generation, so they do not consider deregulated suppliers competitors, but a service option for you to lower and control your energy costs.

A. There are two common options in the deregulated marketplace. All suppliers will send you an invoice for the supply direct to your business. In this scenario, you will receive a separate invoice for the delivery charges from the utility company. In many cases, we can set up a consolidated billing option. This is where the supplier charges are invoiced on the normal utility bill and paid directly to the utility each month. When the payment is received, the utility will pay the supplier for their portion of the bill. This allows your business to continue receiving and processing one utility invoice per month.

A. Boston Buying Power members have a contractual guarantee that Taylor will not execute an auction price unless the deregulated pricing is less than the applicable utility and/or your current deregulated supply contracts. This does guarantee that the future costs, at the time of transaction, will be less than the alternate options.

What we are unable to predict, is what future energy costs or utility tariff rates will do in the future. Our program focuses on long term price stability, as well as budget certainty, which has also produced significant expense reductions.

A. There is no "catch" and thousands have utilized the Boston Buying Power program with great results. Until BBP is able to find market conditions that are more favorable than your current service, you remain with your current provider. At the point in time that BBP can lower your cost basis, you will be quickly and effectively moved to auction and placed in a new deal. Taylor continues to monitor, advise and guide your account with no additional costs to your business.

A. As the program operator, Taylor receives a management fee which is itemized in every customer's agreement and paid by the supplier upon being awarded and auction. The management fee includes the aggregation, auction and access to UtilityModule for the term of the agreement. When auctions are conducted and rates compared, all fees are included in this analysis and projected expense reductions encompass the applicable costs.

A. The City of Boston, through its Office of Business Development, prepared a national RFR (Request for Response) to attract an energy consulting and management company for the Boston business community. This was done to mitigate the adverse impact that energy costs were having on the business community throughout the city in 2008.

The RFR was answered by many of the nation's top energy management companies. All of the companies were thoroughly vetted and the finalists interviewed by a comprehensive panel. Taylor Consulting was selected because of their superior products and services, as well as their ability to achieve the maximum reductions in costs and consumption for BBP members.

A. A time sensitive agreement would be executed by customers that currently have a deregulated agreement and wish to begin service with BBP as of a certain date. Taylor will utilize the time between contract acceptance and the service start date, to aggregate, auction and find the most advantageous pricing.

Any customer on utility rates would qualify for a price sensitive agreement, which cannot be executed until the deregulated pricing is lower than the current published rate for that utility. In either case, Taylor staff is constantly designing aggregations and monitoring market conditions to determine the optimal purchasing windows.

A. The Boston Buying Power program was created to realize all pricing efficiencies in the industry. Bulk purchasing energy provides many member benefits that would not be captured in single contract deals. Taylor is able to attract different suppliers for an auction of thousands than from placing single deals. The auction openly competes suppliers rather than sole sourcing to one supplier. Taylor's proven success will benefits your account with prices 10-30% below what a single customer would produce in a single contract.