Montgomery County Grocery Store Electricity: Multi-Site
Grocery Stores · Montgomery County, Ohio
Market-reference note: Numerical default-price examples below retain their cited 2026 reference period. They are historical class-level context, not a current account quote. Confirm the applicable business rate, components and effective dates on your bill before comparing an offer. How to establish your benchmark.
Can several grocery stores in Montgomery County share one electricity contract?
Yes, with one caveat: Montgomery County is served by two investor-owned utilities (AES Ohio and Duke Energy Ohio), and suppliers price each utility territory separately. A single master agreement can still cover every site, with a price column per utility.
Rural sites served by an electric cooperative — Butler Rural Electric Cooperative and Pioneer Electric Cooperative — are in the same position.
Portfolio math for grocery stores in Montgomery County
Take an illustrative operator with three smaller and two mid-size locations (12,000 ft² and 30,000 ft²):
| Portfolio measure | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Combined annual use | 5.41 million kWh |
| Combined capacity tags | about 795 kW |
| Capacity cost at 2026/27 price ($329.17/MW-day) | about $95,478 a year |
| Illustrative tags at the 2024/25 RTO reference ($28.92/MW-day) | about $8,388 a year |
| Value of each 0.5¢/kWh in supply price | about $27,072 a year |
How these numbers are built: annual use = 56.4 kWh/ft² (EIA CBECS 2018 Table C22, grocery store or food market (mean; median 43.5)). Peak demand assumes a 70% load factor; the capacity tag assumes 90% of that peak falls in the grid's summer peak hours. Capacity cost uses PJM's 2026/27 clearing price of $329.17/MW-day (about $120 per kW-year) before utility scaling factors. These are illustrations for sizing a decision — your own bills and interval data are what suppliers price.
At that combined size the operator is a meaningful account for suppliers, even if each location on its own is below Ohio's 700,000 kWh-a-year “mercantile” line. Each account's aggregation eligibility is still judged site by site.
Utilities and default prices across Montgomery County
| Utility | Small-business default generation price | Cities on this site in the county |
|---|---|---|
| AES Ohio | Varies by rate schedule (on your bill) | Centerville, Dayton, Huber Heights, Kettering, Riverside, Trotwood |
| Duke Energy Ohio | Historical class reference: 11.36¢/kWh (effective June 1, 2026) | — |
Structuring a multi-site contract
- Master agreement with site schedules. Sign one agreement and list each location on a schedule, so opening or closing a grocery store is an amendment, not a new negotiation.
- Add/delete rights. Ask for the right to add new locations at the contract price (or a formula) and to remove closed locations without penalty up to a set share of volume.
- Aggregate bandwidth. Measure usage tolerance across the whole portfolio rather than meter by meter, so one busy site doesn't trigger true-up charges.
- Co-terminous end dates. Put every site on the same end date so the next bid covers the full portfolio.
- Aggregation exits. Locations at 700,000 kWh a year or less may be in a community aggregation program; confirm how each will be moved to the new supplier and whether any exit terms apply.
Operating issues specific to grocery stores
Median operating hours are 98 a week, but refrigeration makes the load nearly flat around the clock. That high load factor means a large share of the bill is energy (kWh) rather than demand, and summer afternoons push compressor head pressure and peak kW up together.
Across a portfolio, the biggest wins usually come from standardizing settings and comparing sites against each other. For grocery stores, that means:
- Add doors to open multi-deck cases and night covers where doors are not practical.
- Tune floating head pressure and suction controls on compressor racks, and keep condensers clean before summer.
- Convert case lighting and sales-floor lighting to LED with occupancy-based dimming in back rooms.
Because refrigeration runs through the summer peak hours that set your capacity tag, grocery stores feel PJM capacity prices directly; ask every supplier to show capacity as its own line.
FAQ
Can a grocery store operator buy electricity for all Montgomery County locations together?
Yes. A supplier can put every shoppable site under one agreement; expect separate prices for AES Ohio and Duke Energy Ohio accounts.
Which Montgomery County locations can't be included?
Sites served by electric cooperatives (Butler Rural Electric Cooperative and Pioneer Electric Cooperative) generally can't be enrolled with a retail supplier.
Are grocery stores “mercantile” customers in Ohio?
Ohio defines a mercantile customer as a commercial account using more than 700,000 kWh a year (or part of a qualifying national account involving multiple facilities). Many full-size supermarkets exceed that; smaller markets usually do not.
Related: Grocery stores & supermarkets in Ohio · Montgomery County utilities
Decision worksheet: Montgomery County grocery store operations
Price current operations and planned changes separately
Dayton-area growth, building works or altered hours can make historical bills a poor representation of the next term. Identify which changes are committed and which are only possibilities. Obtain a documented supplier response to the changed load rather than silently extending last year’s model.
For a grocery store in this market, the useful starting evidence is compressor behavior through hot afternoons and the closed-store load. This is a review question, not an assumption that every local facility has the same equipment or schedule. Record what your site actually does, then explain the difference between the historical bill period and the proposed contract term.
| Delivery-utility guide for Montgomery County | Evidence needed before pricing |
|---|---|
| AES Ohio | Confirm the actual account class and contract; service territory is not the same as a county boundary. |
| Duke Energy Ohio | Confirm the actual account class and contract; service territory is not the same as a county boundary. |
The local guide is a starting map, not an address-level enrollment determination. Keep utility bills and account identifiers in the private document package, not the initial website inquiry. The Ohio bill guide explains how to identify the delivery and supply companies.
A grocery store review should test these operating questions
- Load separation: identify compressor racks, display cases and overnight refrigeration. Distinguish electricity use from gas, water and other operating costs before comparing a retail electric offer.
- Change case: document new refrigerated cases, a remodel or an extended opening schedule. Ask the supplier whether that change affects quoted volume, capacity treatment, demand assumptions or the offer’s validity.
- Comparable performance: track kWh per open hour and conditioned floor area, without ignoring refrigeration. A raw dollar-per-month comparison mixes prices and operations; a unit measure needs the operating context beside it.
- Account responsibility: Are defrost and anti-sweat controls maintaining safe temperatures? Record the responsible party and who can authorize a contract before asking someone to sign.
- Contract fit: Does a refrigeration failure change usage enough to trigger a bandwidth clause? Ask for the answer in the actual agreement or written offer schedule, rather than relying on a sales summary.
Evidence table for the next decision
| Question for this grocery store | Bring this evidence | What a useful answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Has the bill risen because of price or operations? | Same-period kWh, peak kW where billed, hours and production/occupancy records | A separation of rate, volume and demand effects; no automatic savings claim |
| Will the next term resemble the last twelve months? | The planned new refrigerated cases, a remodel or an extended opening schedule | A base case and a change case, with supplier tolerances shown |
| Are supply offers priced on equal terms? | Start dates, included components, additional fees and offer expiry | One comparison matrix that identifies every excluded or adjustable item |
| Is the site free to enroll when proposed? | Current agreement, renewal notice and actual utility confirmation | A documented timeline that avoids an unintended rollover or early-exit charge |
Portfolio review across Montgomery County
Use a separate row for every property rather than one total for the whole business. Start with Centerville, Dayton, Huber Heights, Kettering, Riverside, Trotwood. A common owner can negotiate a master agreement, but meters still have their own rate classes, delivery utilities, start dates and operational constraints. Do not assume that pooling bills creates a volume discount or makes a municipal meter eligible.
For grocery stores, preserve kWh per open hour and conditioned floor area, without ignoring refrigeration at site level before rolling it into a portfolio dashboard. Otherwise a busy or continuously operating location can hide the cost of an idle one. Align contract end dates only after identifying any early-exit costs, add/delete rights and ownership-transfer provisions.
Turn this into a review request
Use the private comparison and renewal tools for a first pass. They do not submit your figures. If you want help, choose “Offer comparison” or “Renewal planner” on the Ohio inquiry form, identify Montgomery County, and describe the question without account numbers or attachments. A supplier bid follows only if the account and decision support that step.
Primary reference points: PUCO electric-bill definitions, Ohio customer classifications and customer-choice guidance. Operating prompts above are planning guidance, not measured local savings or a claim about a specific customer.