Bay residents have until Nov. 18 to switch electric supplier

In May 2010, Bay voters approved a citywide aggregation program to contract with FirstEnergy Solutions for electric generation. The three-year term of the original contract expires in January 2014, and has been renewed for another three years. Residents may opt out of the aggregate until Nov. 18, 2013, and select their own electric generation provider.

If you wish to opt out of the Bay Village Government Electric Aggregate, negotiated for you by the city, you must return the opt-out form that was mailed to your house. If you do not respond by Nov. 18, you will automatically be signed up for a new three-year contract, ending January 2017, with FirstEnergy Solutions as your home’s electricity generation source.

Ohio’s electricity market is deregulated and, therefore, allows residents to choose their generation source. No matter who you choose to generate your power, FirstEnergy Corp’s Illuminating Company will continue to be responsible for delivering the power to your home and for billing your household.

Changing your supplier will not result in any disruption in service or disruption in existing auto-pay on your Illuminating Company bill. If you opt out of the aggregate, you will be free to choose your own supplier when your existing contract ends. Most Bay residents are currently part of the Bay Village Government Aggregate from First Energy Solutions, unless you opted out before the start of the contract. You can call your current energy supplier’s customer service number to verify. That number is listed on your Illuminating Company bill.

If you opt out of the next three-year Bay Village Aggregate by Nov. 18, you can choose a much more sustainable generation source that is currently less expensive per kWh than the Bay Village Aggregate plan.  

The sustainable plan is a 100 percent wind power plan, listed on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's (PUCO) website as “AEP Energy, 100% Wind Product." The PUCO site lists all supplier options, including AEP 100% Wind, with rate plan comparisons and links to sign up for each: www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/index.cfm/apples-to-apples/first-energy-electric-apples-to-apples-chart. The government aggregate is not listed, only individual plans, so have your most recent electric bill handy to compare rates with the aggregate plan.

Changing plans only takes a few minutes online. Be sure that any existing contract that you may be part of has expired before signing up for a new plan or you may be hit with an early termination fee.

If you choose to switch to AEP 100% Wind, please enter referral code “peF81cI2” in the profile page to support the Bay Village Green Team’s efforts to make our city more sustainable.

If you don't opt out of the Bay Village Government Electric Aggregate by Nov. 18, you can still change your generation source during the three-year contract, it will just result in a $25 early termination fee from FirstEnergy Solutions. 

A copy of the opt-out letter sent to Bay Village homes is listed here: dis.puc.state.oh.us/TiffToPDf/A1001001A13J17B13724I25655.pdf.

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Volume 5, Issue 23, Posted 10:07 AM, 11.12.2013