Hey all,

 

Some of you are much better versed in the laws and rules regarding utility companies than I am, so I was wondering if someone could help me understand what's going on with my electric provider.

 

I recently moved away from Columbus to Canton for work, and I signed up for electric service through AEP.  I've had two months worth of bills so far, no big deal.  After work today, I came home to a letter in the mail from AEP letting me know that they were aware of my requested switch to FirstEnergy as my electric provider, and they told me I had until 5pm yesterday to cancel the change.  My deadline to cancel the change was the day before I got the letter acknowledging my request to switch, a request that I never made.

 

I called AEP, and the lady on the phone was very nice but ultimately unable to do much more than give me some clues about what might have happened.  Most of what she told me raised more questions than answers, and I got the distinct vibe from her that she either knew something she wasn't telling me, or at the very least she was under strict instructions not to stray from a particular set of scripted answers.

 

1)  She told me the effective date of the change in her computer showed as August 16th.  We signed the lease for our apartment on the 13th and established an AEP account on the 15th.  Despite getting 2 months of bills without anyone mentioning this change, we supposedly "requested" a change to FirstEnergy the day after we signed up with AEP.

 

2)  She said that FirstEnergy sent out a letter indicating that we would be automatically switched to FirstEnergy unless we responded to tell them that wasn't what we wanted.  I pointed out that we definitely had not gotten that letter, and it very likely would have been sent prior to us renting the apartment, which sat vacant for a few months before we took control in August.  She said the address was what was important, not the resident.  This makes no sense to me.

 

3)  She indicated that AEP's rate hike may have automatically triggered some sort of change, and that callers seemed to think they would be getting a 5% discount because of the switch.  She had no information on FirstEnergy's rates.  She really seemed interested in explaining how energy deregulation in Ohio works, but she didn't want to relate how competing energy providers had anything to do with my automatic switch from one to the other.

 

 

I honestly have no idea what happened here.  The lady from AEP was nice, but ultimately unable to tell me what really happened.  She referred me to FirstEnergy or PUCO, both of whom have normal 8-5 hours so I couldn't call to ask any questions.

 

So here's my question:

 

What the hell is going on?

 

There is information missing from this story, and AEP Lady either didn't have it or wouldn't give it to me.  Surely it can't be legal to automatically switch someone's electricity provider on their behalf prior to them signing up to live there?  Can anyone shed light on what this all means?  I don't owe any allegiance to AEP so I don't really care who provides my electric, but this feels fishy.

Definitely call the PUCO.

The office to call is Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel www.pickocc.org/

 

You will have to wait on hold.  Kasich just arranged to cut OCC's budget 50%.  OCC was funded through electricity payments, not the taxpayer, so this won't save taxpayers anything.  The government just cut OCC's funding for spite.

Well, after calling AEP again to get a more helpful CSR and then speaking with FirstEnergy and then speaking with the Township, I was able to find out what happened, or at least piece together a plausible scenario.

 

Last November the Jackson Township trustees put an issue on the ballot to aggregate the Township's electricity purchasing, and the issue passed.  They cut a deal with FirstEnergy to be the provider of choice for Jackson where FE would agree to always beat AEP's price to compare by 3%.  Part of that deal was that everyone in the city with an electric bill would be automatically switched over to them unless they explicitly opted-out.

 

This vote happened last November.  Sometime between then and 2 months ago when I moved, letters went out to everyone informing them how this would all work.  So I moved in the sweet spot: after the notification but prior to the switch.

 

The woman I spoke to with FirstEnergy was very nice, but when she told me there would be a cancellation fee if I decided to leave and go back to AEP, I hit the roof.  Thankfully, given how recently I found out, they allowed me to cancel and go back to AEP.  I'm not opposed to saving money, and it's probably as simple as saving 3%, but given that they brought up fees in my first conversation...I started wondering whether this would be like switching from Southwest Airlines to American or United: cheaper initial price, get you on the fees later.  I asked both AEP and FE to send me their relevant contracts and promo materials so I could actually compare them.

 

I'm probably spending too much time on something that's ultimately only a $3 difference on a $100 bill, but the weirdness of the process left me with a lot of questions.

With more information, it seems likely that this is just bad communication of a legit (if confusing) process.  I plan on contacting OCC, PUCO, and the AG so that they are aware how this process is playing out when it actually happens.  I like to think I'm a fairly smart person who is well informed about living in Ohio, and it took me several phone calls just to find out what had happened, let alone what I should do about it.  My initial takeaway was that I had been scammed without ever doing anything to allow it.

When I first read your title I thought it would be related to community aggregation.

 

One more point. The three percent would only be off the Electric portion (ie Generation Rate) of the bill not the the entire bill, which also includes Transmission and Distribution charges, fees and taxes. So your savings would be more like 2% not 3%. assuming that energy charge makes up 60-70% of the average electric bil.

 

T and D are not deregulated as they are the charges associated with the capital recover and O&M of poles, wires and equipment.