The envelope had the city's seal on it, which is the only reason I opened it before the grocery ads. Inside was a letter saying our household would be enrolled in a community electric program at a group rate, starting with a fall meter reading, unless we returned the enclosed card to opt out. There was a deadline in bold, 21 days out.
Three weeks earlier, that letter might have gotten tossed on the pile. But I cleaned out my desk at school on June 6, and these days I have time to read the fine print. So I read it twice.
What aggregation means
In Ohio, cities and townships can do something called governmental aggregation. Voters approve it, and then the community shops for an electricity supplier as a big group, hoping a large number of households gets a better price than one family would. Our utility still delivers the power and sends the bill. The aggregation just picks the supplier for the generation part.
Most programs like ours are opt-out. That means if you do nothing, you are in. You don't have to sign anything. That is the part that makes people nervous, and I understand why. It is also why the letter comes with a card and a deadline.
The letter laid out the terms clearly, which I appreciated:
- A fixed rate of 9.3 cents per kilowatt-hour
- A term of about 18 months
- No early termination fee if you leave later
- No monthly fee
How it compared to what we had
Back in May, I used the state's Apples to Apples chart and signed us up with a supplier at a 12-month fixed rate of 8.9 cents. Our utility's price to compare at the time was about 10.6 cents.
So the city's offer was a good deal next to the default, about 1.3 cents cheaper. It just wasn't better than what we already had. Lining it up for a typical month of 900 kilowatt-hours:
At our 8.9 cents, the supply part runs $80.10. At the city's 9.3 cents, it would be $83.70. That's $3.60 a month, or about $43 over a year, in our favor.
The aggregation offer did have two things going for it. It ran longer, about 18 months instead of the 11 we had left. And there was no fee to leave. Ours has a $25 early termination fee, which I'd have to pay if I wanted out early.
The phone call
I called the number on the letter because I wanted to know one thing. If we did nothing, would the city's program pull us off the contract I had just signed?
The woman I talked to was patient. She explained that households already enrolled with their own supplier generally aren't switched into the aggregation, because the program is meant for people on the utility's default supply. The letter goes to everyone in the city because the mailing list doesn't sort that out. But she also said that if I wanted to be sure, the opt-out card was the cleanest way.
So I filled out the card, wrote the date in the green notebook, and Greg dropped it at the post office on his way home. He asked if I was opting out of the city. I told him only the electricity, he could keep the trash pickup.
When I'd stay in
I don't want this to sound like aggregation is a bad thing. For a lot of people it's the opposite. Patti Henderson next door brought her letter over that afternoon, and when we looked at her bill, she had never switched anything in 30 years. For her, staying in the program would take her from the utility's default to 9.3 cents without lifting a finger. I told her what I'd do in her shoes, which is let it happen and check the first bill. She did.
If I were starting from scratch, a no-fee, fixed-rate group offer would be hard to argue with. It's simple, and you can leave without penalty if something better comes along.
A few notes for anyone holding the same letter:
Check your own bill first. If it shows a supplier name in the generation section, you may already have a contract.
Compare the aggregation rate to both your current rate and the price to compare. It's only a deal relative to something.
Look at the term and the exit fee. No exit fee is worth something.
And write the deadline down. Doing nothing is a choice too, which is fine, as long as it's yours.
Our contract ends next May. When it does, I'll look at whatever the city is offering then, right alongside the state's chart.
