Look into saving money on electricity and natural gas | Letter

I applaud The Repository’s article on the near-term increases in electric generation (supply) charges. Saving money on electricity and natural gas is something to watch regularly. You can easily do this by signing up for Ohio PUCO Rate Change Alerts at https://puco.ohio.gov/utilities/electricity/resources/sign-up-for-rate-change-alerts.

To save money, you can select your electric supply from three sources — the electric utility (AEP, Ohio Edison, etc.), an aggregation supplier (like the Plain Township program), or an individual supplier using PUCO Apples to Apples. Periodically, one may find that switching between these options saves money for several months or more.

I do this for electric and natural gas. Why? The pricing dynamics of these three sources operate on different schedules and time horizons.

The PUCO could improve this process by adding the aggregation options available to consumers on Apples to Apples. At this time, one has to do a little homework searching for aggregation options for their location. This is especially true for my situation where I live in Lake Township, but aggregation is under another community program for electric and yet another for natural gas.

I was annoyed by the quote from David Jankowski, chief marketing and communications officer for NOPEC. Among the reasons for increases in electricity rates he cites (“blames”) returns to office and rising demand for electric vehicles.

Really? I find the return to office reason comical, but as for electric vehicles, those economics, positive or negative, will take decades to play out and are insignificant to the supply price changes happening in the near term — the focus of the article.

Alan Michel, Lake Township