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Home savings estimated at more than $50 a year
By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Thursday, Jun 11, 2009
Residential and small business customers in the major electric-buying aggregation in Northeast Ohio will see significant discounts on their bills beginning Aug. 1.
The Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, also known as NOPEC, is made up of 126 communities in nine Northeast Ohio communities and includes a customer base of 535,000.
Participating local communities include Macedonia, Northfield, Lakemore, Peninsula, Twinsburg, Clinton, Reminderville, Kent, Hiram Village, 18 Portage County townships and Brunswick.
In April, NOPEC announced that it had entered a contract to buy its electricity from Gexa Energy Ohio LLC.
NOPEC's aggregation deal gives residential customers in the buying group an additional 12 percent off the electric generation portion of the bill in 2009 and 8 percent in the first six months of 2010. Small business customers will see a 9 percent decrease in 2009 and 5.5 percent decrease for the first six months of 2010.
That's on top of 16 percent yearly decreases for residential electric rates for all Ohio Edison customers based on the utility's auction last month.
Leigh Herington, NOPEC's executive director, said the group is hoping soon to lock in the rate for the remainder of the second year of the contract. NOPEC's contract with Gexa runs through May 2011.
''These are the most favorable rates we have been able to negotiate in the nine years NOPEC has been in existence,'' said Herington, adding that the rate reduction will mean a total estimated savings of about $28 million for customers over the next year.
Herington said the typical home customer would save between $50 and $75 a year on top of the previous savings, which earlier were estimated at around $100.
Herington said NOPEC's deal might be the best rate offered by a government aggregation in the state.
FirstEnergy subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions has announced aggregation deals with several groups, including Akron and Summit County. In all, 47 governmental aggregation or buying groups representing 580,00 residential and small-business customers have negotiated discounts. FirstEnergy spokeswoman Ellen
Raines said the contracts are guaranteed savings for 31/2 years, a longer period than NOPEC's deal.
Ryan Lippe, spokesman for the Ohio consumers' counsel, said, ''We are certainly pleased that NOPEC has found a way for customers to save a considerable amount on their electric bills at a time when households are struggling.
Customers in NOPEC electric communities will be asked if they want to opt out of the program and will be receiving a letter in late June or early July, said Herington. Customers who live in NOPEC electric communities do not need to do anything to be automatically included. However, it is important to note that some NOPEC communities that have a contract for natural gas through the group are not included in the electric buying group and vice versa.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at
330-996-3724 or blinfisher@
thebeaconjournal.com.
Residential and small business customers in the major electric-buying aggregation in Northeast Ohio will see significant discounts on their bills beginning Aug. 1.
Get the full article here.
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