CLEVELAND — According to industry experts, come June 1, Northeast Ohioans who get their electricity from a utility, such as Ohio Edison, the Illuminating Company, and Toledo Edison, will experience a significant price hike.
“Only those customers that are not on their own directly enrolling with a competitive retail energy supplier, or customers not already enrolled with a local government aggregation,” said Matt Schilling, director of public affairs at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, of who will be experiencing the price hike. “These customers will be served by their utility’s default rate, the formal name for that is called the Standard Service Offer, but it’s essentially how much you pay for electricity if you make no decisions on your own.”
According to Schilling, wholesale energy prices are determined through a series of auctions. A number of auctions are “mixed together” to get a wholesale energy price, and that is the price customers will see if they pay their utility’s Standard Service Offer, or SSO.
Schilling said over the last year, wholesale energy prices nationwide have been higher due to inflation, higher natural gas prices, and global factors like the war in Ukraine, among other reasons.
“On June first, these wholesale energy prices are going to kick in for those types of customers, and there will be a sizeable increase in the price per kilowatt hour,” Schilling said. “For those three utilities, Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, and Cleveland Electric Illuminating, that’s hovering at about 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour right now. We know that in June, as a result of wholesale energy auctions, that’s going to be up to approximately 12 cents, so a little bit more than doubling.”
Schilling said consumers have additional options to consider, such as a government aggregation program like NOPEC, or they can find a retail supplier on their own in order to explore different options and prices.
According to their website, NOPEC is a “governmental energy aggregation that combines the buying power of over 240 Ohio communities to negotiate competitively priced electricity and natural gas.” Municipalities who vote to participate may be able to leverage the amount of their customers for more buying or negotiating power, in the hopes of securing a better rate.
Now, NOPEC is working to re-enroll customers, after turning 550,000 of them back to their SSOs last summer due to their high electricity rates as compared to the default utility standard, according to David Jankowski, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of NOPEC.
According to Jankowski, in a reversal from last summer, NOPEC’s prices will now be lower than the SSO price.
“The last place you want to be is remaining in that SSO,” Jankowski said. “We put you there when prices were good, it’s going to go – it’s going to reverse, it’s going to invert, like I said, and now we’re telling people whether you choose NOPEC or whether you choose another retail supplier through Apples to Apples and some of the opportunities available for shopping for your own retail contract, don’t be on the SSO come June 1.”
NOPEC recently sent a letter to customers informing them of their options. Customers who do nothing will be automatically re-enrolled into NOPEC’s standard program price option, while those who want to opt out will need to call NOPEC or mail or fax back their letter by May 2, according to Jankowski.
“We’re going to be able to offer 6.45 cents, so slightly higher than what they’re paying today, but not double,” Jankowski said. “It’s going to be half of what the SSO price is going to be, and we are going to fix that price for our customers from June up until December, so a six month run of that pricing guaranteed.”
Jankowski also noted that NOPEC customers may soon receive a letter regarding their gas.
In a statement, FirstEnergy told 3News in part, “Customers who opt out of a government aggregation program can continue to rely on their FirstEnergy electric company for all of their electric needs, including default energy supply for those who do not receive their energy supply from an alternative supplier. Their service will not be interrupted as a result of this switch, and we will continue to deliver safe, reliable power.”
Schilling recommended using PUCO’s Apples to Apples online tool in order to compare prices for customers who want to shop around.