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The General Services Administration (GSA), Great Lakes Region, realized cost avoidance savings of some $840,000 in electricity supply purchases through use of an online reverse energy auction platform. The savings were achieved in a series of three auctions through which the GSA purchased more than 176 million kilowatt hours (kWh.) of electricity for contract periods ranging from 36 to 60 months.

Participants in the GSA aggregation included the Bureau of Prisons, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Social Security Administration, and the Veterans Administration. Electricity supply will be used in facilities managed by these agencies, along with 29 other Great Lakes Region facilities.

GSA's savings are a measure of cost avoidance realized through the auction compared to published utility rates. Had GSA not used the online auction process provided of World Energy Solutions Worcester, MA, and relied instead on the utility standard offer service rate, the agency would have spent $840 thousand more for the same electricity.

The largest auction involved more than 141 million kWh., resulting in a savings of 12.4 percent. The other two auctions procured some 23.4 million kWh. and 10.4 million kWh., with savings of 3.5 percent and 21.6 percent, respectively.

As part of GSA's Great Lakes auction, some five percent of the supply mix was designated as renewable energy or renewable energy certificates.

This latest GSA auction was conducted as part of a prime contract awarded to World Energy by the GSA in September 2005. Since then, GSA has conducted four energy procurements, including securing renewable "green" electric supply for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, electric supply for Veteran's Administration and Bureau of Prisons facilities in Texas, and a six week set of procurements for GSA's Natural Gas Acquisition Program covering some 33 states.