Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington

The AOBA Alliance, Inc. is a subsidiary of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington (AOBA), which is the leading membership-based organization, representing commercial and multi-family residential real estate, in the Washington, DC area.

Since 1974, AOBA has worked diligently to protect and enhance the value of its members’ investments through effective leadership, advocacy, information exchange, and professional development. Having represented the local industry in virtually every major utility proceeding in last 35 years, AOBA has established itself as the primary voice of the commercial building industry in both legislative and regulatory activities.

In the late 1990’s, the AOBA leadership team recognized that movements toward deregulation of retail electricity and natural gas markets could provide both opportunities and challenges for commercial building owners and managers. Their main concern was to ensure that any deregulation scheme adopted would both maximize their members’ potential savings while also protecting their legal interests. In this context, AOBA became an active participant in both regulatory and legislative activities relating to utility deregulation in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

AOBA Alliance, Inc.

In 2000, AOBA formed a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary, AOBA Alliance, Inc. The purpose of the AOBA Alliance is to provide the commercial building industry a channel through which to achieve savings through the procurement of energy and energy-related services as well as greater access to industry information. Shortly thereafter, AOBA Alliance became a licensed broker and market of energy and energy-related services in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

Initially, the AOBA Alliance sought to create a structure that would enable participants in to gain a better understanding of their electric and natural gas usage profiles, as well as help them to secure the services they might need to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings.

AOBA Alliance selected Pepco Energy Services, Inc. (PES) as its preferred energy service provider and entered into an agreement to market energy and energy-related services in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

On July 1, 2000 when electric service became deregulated in Maryland, AOBA Alliance and PES were among the first to offer competitively priced electric service in the state. In addition, with the start of deregulation in the District of Columbia on January 1, 2001, AOBA Alliance and PES undertook competitive electric service offerings in this jurisdiction as well. The relationship with PES continued until late 2009 when PES announced its decision to exit the retail energy supply industry.

In early 2010, the AOBA Alliance announced its selection of Constellation as its new preferred energy supply provider. The primary goal in selecting a new supplier was to obtain competitive pricing while maintaining the highly favorable contract terms and conditions that AOBA Alliance participants have enjoyed over the past decade. The AOBA Alliance’s relationship with Constellation furthers our goals and objectives of providing value-added energy procurement and products and services for our participants.

In October 2010, the AOBA Alliance became licensed by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to serve as a broker and marketer of electricity throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In subsequent years, AOBA participation has expanded to other states where our participants have properties to include 18 total states with AOBA Alliance participants.