As you are aware, a series of events have unfolded involving the NOPEC electric aggregation of which our community is a part. You have received a number of mailings from a number of organizations and we know that these mailings have caused quite a bit of confusion.
Most recently, many North Ridgeville residents may have received a letter from Ohio Edison telling them that they are being returned to the Utility and will begin receiving power from them in January. Most commonly, these same residents also received a NOPEC opt-out notice that informed them that they needed to take no action to remain in NOPEC.
As confusing as this may all seem, BOTH mailings are exactly correct. Here’s why . . . as you may recall, NOPEC was given a very short notice from First Energy Solutions that it would be cancelling NOPEC’s supply contract effective the beginning of 2017. NOPEC responded as quickly as it could and negotiated a new supply contract with NextEra Energy Ohio and issued opt out notices to hundreds of thousands of customers. That’s the good news. The bad news is that a handful of communities fell through the cracks due to a “coding error.” North Ridgeville was in that group and so the opt-out notices for 10,000 or so of our residents was not mailed until several weeks after the initial mailing. Those notices were subsequently mailed and should have all arrived by the latter part of December.
Because of that glitch, those customers WILL be returning to the utility of record that serves them (Ohio Edison) for a one-month cycle. If you took no action when you received the NOPEC opt-out notice, you will be returned to the NOPEC aggregation that serves North Ridgeville with your February meter read.
NOPEC apologizes for this confusion and looks forward to serving you with reliable, stable-priced power for years to come. Perhaps the best news of all is that NextEra Energy Ohio is one of the most financially sound power companies in the country and had a commitment to bringing affordable, renewable power to NOPEC’s many communities at a highly competitive price and with, perhaps, the best terms and conditions available in the Ohio market today. If you have questions, please contact the NOPEC call center at 1-855-667-3201 (855-NOPEC01).