The Challenge: Making Time for Energy Management

When you consider making a change, regardless of what that change is, your mind calculates the return on your decision/investment and forms an opinion.  My biggest challenge is convincing someone to consider making that change before seeing the potential return on time/investment.  Energy management requires a lot of "up-front" work before we can have meaningful conversations about your options.  Everyone is busy and finding time for a potential partner, while scrambling to meet deadlines, covering open positions, and wrapping up fiscal years, makes it easy to put in the "I'll get back to you" bucket.  So, in the spirit of the holiday season, here's a peek into what Freedom does for municipal clients and the opportunities that come with embracing individual advisory services. 

How Freedom Energy Supports Massachusetts Municipalities

Freedom's municipal team formed in August 2021 and currently supports 38 Massachusetts municipal clients!  Our process resonates with energy managers and provides consistency in the wake of employee turnover. The first step is collecting electric and natural gas invoices for review.  You'll only have to send them once and will receive an excel sheet detailing usage anomalies, sales taxes being paid, incorrect supply rates, high delivery charges, and the opportunity for net metering credits (or re-alignment of an existing plan accumulating negative balances). We then present a full bid summary and recommendation – did you know electric and natural gas contracts may be purchased up to 24 months in advance of the start date?  Making sure clients are aware of available rates, at all times, means you'll never miss an opportunity to lower costs.  We're supplier agnostic and work with several vetted, Massachusetts electric and natural gas suppliers, offering our pre-negotiated supply contracts, bringing a range of supplier choices to compare.  After a few rounds of pricing, you'll receive a contract comparison memo to assist with legal approval of the top two or three supplier contracts.  All at no cost or commitment! 

Ongoing Contract Management That Reduces Risk

Once the agreements have been negotiated and agreed upon, we schedule a final bid date to execute.  Interested in purchasing renewable energy to keep pace with stated sustainability goals?  We'll help you chart a path toward net-zero by slowly ramping up the additional green power percentages as new contracts are signed, keeping the community on track (we'll even provide a press release and support your green power message across social channels). 

The month after the contract begins, we provide an enrollment report to confirm all accounts were successfully enrolled and correct any that were missed or rejected.  Account monitoring continues throughout the agreement, and we inform you of any unintended drops immediately and assist with re-enrollment.  Have a new account?  One of the best features of Freedom's pre-negotiated supply contracts is the add/delete language that allows a new account to be added to the existing contract under the same rate, terms, and conditions.  Conversely, if an old building is torn down, sold, or electrified, this same language is used to remove an account from the existing contract with no early termination penalties.  A provision all 38 of our Massachusetts municipal clients have used! 

Every December, we provide an individualized End of Year memo that includes a savings analysis, budget expectations for the upcoming FY and calendar years, and a recap of the last 12 months along with any recommendations. 

A Partner That Acts as an Extension of Your Staff

We serve as an extension of your staff and a resource for all things energy to combat limited community resources, energy expertise, sustainability requirements, and community support.