Electric Update - Electric Aggregation

May 2025

Canaan Township is one of four Morrow County townships that is part of the Electric Aggregation program in Morrow County. The other townships that are part of this group are Perry, Gilead, and Washington Township. The Morrow County Commissioner's act as the aggregator for these four townships. By being a part of a larger buying group, the members of the group often get better rates and terms than they could get on their own. The County Commissioners work with Palmer Energy to shop for the best supplier to meet the group of customer's needs. With the new contract, Dynegy will be the supplier. Gilead and Washington townships will go into effect this July and will show up on August's utility bill. Canaan and Perry townships will begin in December and show up on January's utility bills. The rate for all will be $0.0887 until December 2026.  As always, anyone can "opt-out" of this program and go with the supplier of their choice.

The following information was supplied by Palmer Energy to explain aggregation and why there will be an upcoming increase. This increase will be seen for most everyone in the state of Ohio.

Electric Update – Electric Aggregation

As you may have recently seen in the news, PJM, the Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) overseeing the electric grid in Ohio and many surrounding states, announced the generation capacity auction results for the delivery year beginning June 1, 2025. 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 will impact consumers’ bills starting June 1, 2025. And 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. US 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.

County’s Electric Aggregation

Gilead and Washington’s townships new electric aggregation will begin July 2025 and Canaan and Perry townships will begin December 2025. The new rate is $0.0887 until December 2026, and the supplier is Dynegy.  The utility rates (AEP/OE) in June 2025 is $9.965 and $0.09365. That will change monthly.  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.