ELYRIA, Ohio — A man in Elyria is experiencing sticker shock after he got in the mail a whopper of an electricity bill.
The Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council or NOPEC transitioned more than a half million people to their default service in an effort to save them money.
Roger Neff had to get on a payment plan to help settle up his bill but is seeking more advice or help.
He says he got a letter a couple of months ago from NOPEC about how he would be better off, for now, with the default service.
Neff called News 5 after he opened his most recent utility bill.
"Holy moly I was totally shocked,” said Neff.
The bill is for more than eight hundred dollars due this month.
"I thought for sure I wasn't the only one in this situation, I was just looking for a solution, maybe some help," he said.
According to FirstEnergy, people who were automatically enrolled in the government aggregation program through NOPEC were transitioned from NOPEC to their FirstEnergy utility default because their price to compare was lower than NOPEC’s.
Back in August, NOPEC called the move a proactive step to save its customers money.
However, FirstEnergy says customers may still owe money based on electric use in the summer months, so they are on the hook.
"It's just quite a shock because I went back through my bills. In June, I paid $101. July, August and September I was paying $145 and to go to $250 probably, and they told me it would take about 10 months,” said Neff.
Rachael Belz is the Director for the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, which is a non-profit that works on utility and electricity issues.
"If I was a community member of NOPEC I would wonder what my membership was getting me,” said Belz.
Belz says this isn’t the best timing.
“We're most concerned about the people at their homes not being compromised in some way where they don't have heat, they don't have electricity, not having what they need especially going into winter,” said Belz.
Neff is retired and on a fixed income.
"As far as I was concerned, I was paying my bill on time and everything was okay,” said Neff.
He’s now looking at how and where to make cuts in his personal budget to pay the bill.
"I like to pay my bills on time and I'm not going to be able to do this,” said Neff.
FirstEnergy says customers will not see service interruptions as a result of this switch.
NOPEC plans to resume electric aggregation service next June. You can find more information on NOPEC’s website at nopec.org/return, or call NOPEC’s customer care center at 855-667-3201, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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