Mountain View Power (MVP), a community-operated local electricity provider, is almost certainly getting into the gas provision business too.
That could happen as early as this coming January, says Olds Institute (OI) executive director Mitch Thomson. Mountain View Power is under the wing of OI.
Thomson says MVP officials will have a better idea of when the service will be offered after representatives of the wholesale gas provider, ATCO Gas, come to Olds in early December to discuss the idea.
Thomson stresses MVP will be offering gas service to Olds customers – it's simply a question as to when that can happen.
“We're committed to it,” he says. “We just need to make sure all the ducks are lined up before we hook up that first customer. So in that first week of December, we'll sit down as a committee and review the obstacles and whether they've all been removed and then set the date to go forward.”
Thomson says MVP is also looking at the possibility of providing gas to entities like the chamber of commerce and local service groups – even other communities.
“Very specifically, we're looking to create programs that will enable other communities and service groups to provide a referral type of service to their members and community bases,” Thomson says.
He cites the chamber as an example.
“The chamber has some affinity programs and they're member-to-member types of programs,” Thomson says. “We would be able to offer these types of services potentially through chambers of commerce, service clubs, other communities.”
Accessing gas from MVP could be one of the benefits of belonging to that organization, Thomson says.
“And we would provide a referral fee to that organization. So that organization would help us market the service and then they would get a portion of the profit that we make to support their initiatives or their community,” he says.
Thomson says it's one way for MVP to give back to the community yet also strengthen itself.
“We run on a volunteer model and because of those volunteers, we're able to make those profits. What if we offered a portion of those profits to community groups and other communities to do the same? Would that help grow our business and support their community initiatives? That's basically our goal, to create that mechanism,” Thomson says.
He says the Town of Sundre has enquired about the idea.
“Because of our success with Mountain View Power, because of our success with O-NET, there are a lot of interested parties. So we're looking at how we can leverage the great work that our volunteers have done to empower others and create a return for our community and theirs or our group and theirs,” Thomson says.
