Lacombe’s Echo Energy now has 290 electricity accounts and 222 natural gas accounts.

The city’s economic development manager Guy Lapointe says the energy retailer has even more ambitious targets for next year.

“The goal is 350 by the end of the year and next year’s goal would be 500,” Lapointe says.

Echo Energy operates as a social enterprise, a model where company profits are spent on community projects.

Five hundred electricity accounts would generate as much as $65,000, Lapointe says.

In the past, Echo Energy’s earnings have been spent on construction of a new stage at the Lacombe Memorial Centre, contributing toward costs of hosting the Alberta Student Leadership Conference at Lacombe Composite High School, and a new coffee bike used for Neighbourhood Life efforts.

Last night, city council voted to renew its agreement for five years with Echo Energy’s bulk supplier, Utilitynet.