Columnist to Analyze Offers; Check Out Chart
Gas Choice Coming Soon

The Akron Beacon Journal
July 9, 2006
By Betty Lin-Fisher

If you're among the natural gas customers who followed me last summer when choosing WPS Energy Services' deal that capped at $10.35 per thousand cubic feet, our contracts end in September. We'll have to make another decision by mid- to late-August.

By program rules, a natural gas marketer must notify its customers of its new rate 45 days before the end of the contract. So WPS will begin sending letters out this week to affected customers.

I will be analyzing the natural gas prices in our market in early August. If you'd like to do some research before then, use the charts provided by the two state agencies, The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, www.puco.ohio.gov, or the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, www.pickocc.org. If you have questions, call WPS at 888-367-4493.

Shell Energy

Later this summer, about 100,000 natural gas customers of Shell Energy Services of Houston will become customers of MXenergy. The Stamford, Conn., company is in the process of purchasing the customers of Shell Energy Services, which Shell Oil is selling to focus on its core oil business.

Many people in the Akron area are Shell customers through municipal aggregations. Those affected will get letters in the next few weeks from MXenergy. The new company will honor the remainder of your contracts and you shouldn't notice any difference in service except the new name on your bill.

If you have questions, you can call Shell at 866-743-5578.

Akron electricity

I've been getting quite a few calls asking about the city of Akron's electric aggregation. This offer from FirstEnergy Solutions is for 4 percent off the generation portion of your bill (about a third of your bill) for residential customers and 2 percent for commercial customers.

The electricity market does not have any competitors with offers, so I'd go for this deal to save a little money. If you live or own a business in Akron, you will automatically be enrolled in this two-year deal, unless you opt out by Wednesday.