Important electric aggregation update

VW independent staff/submitted information

Electric aggregation is an option for a large group of consumers to save money on the generation portion of their electric bills.

Currently though the Van Wert County’s aggregation, the following townships are participating: Harrison, Jackson, Jennings, Liberty, Pleasant, Ridge, Tully, Union, Washington, Willshire, and York; the villages of Middle Point, Willshire, and Wren, and the City of Van Wert. Within these communities only those in the footprint of AEP, AES and Ohio Edison can participate. Those who are served by Paulding-Putnam Electric Cooperative or Midwest Electric cannot.

PJM, the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) overseeing the electric grid in Ohio and many surrounding states recently announced the generation capacity auction results for the delivery year beginning June 1. The announcement garnered wide attention due to a price jump from the current rate of $29.50/MW-day for most Ohioans, to a rate of $270.43/MW-day.

What is capacity?

PJM is responsible for ensuring that there is enough electricity available to meet the demand in any section of the grid at any time.

This is accomplished by compensating generating plants and consumers that can reliably reduce their load on the system for sufficient supply to meet forecasted system demands. This recent auction began impacting consumers’ bills on June 1, and it will continue until May 31, 2026.

Why are capacity rates increasing so much?

The simple explanation for the coming increase in capacity costs is due to supply and demand. U.S. electric demand is seeing higher growth from large data centers, electric vehicles, hotter weather, and organizations enacting environmentally conscious goals and policies. Supply has been impacted by generation plant retirements, especially baseload units, delays in the process to bring new generation assets online, and the longer and costlier timeline to construct new units.

It is important to note that this increase is unavoidable for all Ohio consumers behind investor-owned utilities (AEP, AES, FirstEnergy, and Duke). Ohio consumers will pay their portion of the increased capacity costs regardless of whether they are supplied directly through their utility or shopping for third-party power supplies.

Van Wert County’s electric aggregation

The current aggregation began in December, 2023 at the rate is $0.0645 and ends in December of this year for the communities listed above, except for Tully, which recently passed on the ballot The new contract will begin in September for Tully with Dynegy at the rate of $0.0934 and will expire in December, 2026. The rest of the communities will come in December when the current contract ends. Dynegy’s number is 888.682.2170 to call to opt in or opt out. If you have any other questions, you can contact Valerie at Palmer Energy, the County’s consultant at 419.491.1040.