Officials with the communities as well as Ohio Edison and the aggregator, Allegheny Energy Supply, hope to get the situation resolved quickly. Those affected represent a small percentage of the 18,000 customers in the communities, officials said. The situation was also expected, they said, and is probably one of several bumps in the road they will face as the process rolls out. Those customers may or may not realize they've been left off since the new supplier was not supposed to show up on a customer's bill until this month or next month, depending on the date of the meter reading.
Aggregation is an inclusive process.
That means customers who live in a participating community should be automatically included in the buying pool unless they ask to be removed, also known as opting out. In problem cases, the customers did not opt out, but were still left out. Chuck Lanager, sales manager for Allegheny, said similar problems have happened in aggregated communities in Pennsylvania. Ohio Edison spokeswoman Ellen Raines said the utility company is aware of the problem and is working with the parties involved. The four communities were the first in the state to aggregate and successfully bid for part of Ohio Edison's heavily discounted electricity, known as market support generation.