In November-2013, Village of North Bend voters approved a natural gas aggregation program to eligible residents and small businesses as a competitive fixed price alternative to Duke Energy Ohio’s variable Gas Cost Recovery (GCR) rate. The current aggregation expired in June 2022.

The Village of North Bend worked closely with their energy consultant Energy Alliances to evaluate options for renewing the program beyond June 2022. Due to a significant increase in energy prices since summer 2021 and particularly this past winter, Energy Alliances has recommended that the Village of North Bend not to lock into any prices at this time and to have all accounts on the program go back to Duke’s GCR rate starting with their July 2022 bill.

Why did Energy Alliances make this recommendation?

• A combination of a cold winter and geopolitical tensions in Europe have drove natural gas prices to their highest levels in several years.
• Locking in a price now to keep the program going through the summer of 2022 would force participants to lock into historically high prices for 2022 and beyond.
• Sending accounts back to Duke’s default rates for the summer gives Energy Alliances and community leaders time to evaluate the market to see if prices come down before next winter.
• The average resident consumes only 7% of their annual natural gas usage during the months of July – October. Finding a favorable rate for the Winter of 2023 is most important.

What do accounts on the program need to do and what should they expect?

·         Nothing must be done. The change will occur automatically.

·         AEP Energy is the new supplier of the natural gas aggregation program. 

Will the aggregation program return in the future?

• Energy Alliances  and the Village of North Bend worked closely together and in August-2022, locked in a new price of $0.839 per Ccf
• The timeline is for opt-out letters to be mailed to eligible accounts is Late August - mid-September-2022

If you have any questions regarding the Village of North Bend’s aggregation program, you can reach out to Energy Alliances in several ways:

Phone: 513-794-5555
Email: ops@energyalliances.com
Chat with them on their website: https://energyalliances.com/