The recent winter storm in Texas placed a spotlight on not only consumers’ bills, but also on the bills that large energy users like school districts across the state pay. The February winter event of 2021 changed the Texas energy landscape forever and based on the 300 bills submitted to the Texas legislature, it’s likely to have a profound impact on all of us in the future.  The good news coming from the freeze is a renewed focus by districts on managing their energy costs, ensuring operational reliability, and realizing significant savings.

Many school districts have long considered their energy bills a sunk cost and something that had to be tolerated.  In reality, districts across Texas can and should actively manage their energy costs. As the market changes and the focus turns to reliability, we encourage school districts to take advantage of the tools available that do not cause huge capital expenditures, intense management oversight, or huge data analysis to make smart energy decisions.

How do you begin? It all starts with your present provider and developing a deeper understanding of what you are paying for.  Are the bills the district receives accurate? Is there a better option for the district as your contract with your present provider winds down? Do you have the right contract terms to ensure you don’t get stuck with huge bills, as so many did due to the February grid failure?

At Axeon, we can help your district answer these challenging questions. Our team, along with our strategic partner Acclaim Energy has been doing it for 18 years and have more than 200 years of combined experience in the Texas market. Our role is to sit on the side of the school district and not the retail provider, so you get the transparency you need to mitigate future risks. We also offer a no-obligation evaluation of your district to determine the best options going forward, whether it’s energy procurement, better contract terms, and conditions or low-cost reliability solutions, we can help.  In fact, Acclaim Energy was one of the first to develop aggregation pools that combined loads with other participating districts to achieve long-term savings. This eliminates contracting independently and provides the district an attractive “strike price” to capture the best rates in the market.  Strike price and aggregation adds scale and increases supplier competitiveness.

Axeon is the only interlocal fully dedicated to energy. We are highly collaborative and apply the latest technology to analyze data, and actively manage your energy portfolio.

We encourage you to take the time to explore your options to protect your students and community from future grid failures while saving significantly on your electricity costs.