NOPEC customers to see reduced rates in spring after settlement

NOPEC customers will be seeing reduced rates on their spring bills after a breach of contract settlement with FirstEnergy.

In January 2017, Akronbased FirstEnergy terminated its contact to supply electricity at a discounted rate to 500,000 NOPEC customers. There were three years left on the deal. NOPEC is a not-forprofit public energy aggregation serving more than 200 communities in 13 counties, including most of Lake, Geauga, Cuyahoga and Lorain counties.

“Basically, NOPEC’s position was it was a breach of contract, (FirstEnergy) unilaterally canceled their contract to be their supplier,” said Lake County Commissioner Daniel P. Troy, who serves as the county’s representative on the NOPEC board. “They wanted certain concessions in the contract. So like anything else, when legal action was threatened, there was a sit-down and this was the agreed upon settlement.”

NOPEC received about $6 million from the settlement, Troy said. NOPEC added about another $3 million to that total for a customer give-back program. In March through June, customers will receive a reduced rate on the generation portion of their electric bills.

On average, residential customers will see a reduced rate of nearly $18 and small businesses will see about a $39 reduction.

NOPEC said that customers do not need to do anything to receives the benefits from the program, but anyone with questions is asked to call 855-6673201.

NextEra Energy Services Ohio replaced FirstEnergy as NOPEC’s electricity supplier. They are in the middle of a threeyear contract that went into effect as FirstEnergy’s ended.

NOPEC was formed in 2000 as a council of governments to harness bulkbuying power to purchase electricity and natural gas at a lower cost for its member communities. It is the largest such aggregation in the United States.