Area Voters Will Decide Future Electric and Natural Gas Rates
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Aggregation has become a topic of conversation since the state of Ohio deregulated the process of how electric and natural gas is provided and billed to the customers.
City of Zanesville Mayor Don Mason and Community Development Administrator Stephanie Winland described how voters can benefit by voting for electric and natural gas aggregation on the November ballot.
“Well the City of Zanesville and the Muskingum County Commissioners separately but working together have looked at ways to save consumers money on their AEP bills and their Columbia Gas of Ohio bills. So whether you’re in the city or the county you’ll have the opportunity to vote for aggregation of electricity and another item will be aggregation of natural gas,” Mason said.
If those issues pass in the city and county, the governments will create a bid auction for energy providers to compete towards supplying the lowest rates to the customers.
By aggregating the number of customers that can be served, the city and county can leverage-for lower, bulk rates from the suppliers.
Energy aggregation contracts lock in rates so that spikes in generation costs and inflation through the life of the contracts will not affect the customers.
“Now if it isn’t going to directly affect you, we’re still encouraging you to vote yes because we need the yes votes to pass the issues, so that your neighbor can continue to get the best deal possible,” Winland said. “So by voting yes, you’re actually going to be able to help your friends and family members have the opportunity to have lower utility rates,” Mason added.
Residents who are already participating in an energy discount agreement will not be required to switch and if passed, all energy customers will have the option to opt into or out of the aggregation agreement.
The Ohio Municipal League estimates that communities which have adopted electric and natural gas aggregation have saved up to $300 dollars per household this past year.
