Miami County will vote on energy aggregation in November election

Electricity costs are projected to rise this summer; aggregation programs aim to save residents money

TROY — The Miami County commissioners agreed Thursday to ask voters in the county’s unincorporated areas to approve electric and natural gas government aggregation programs in November.

The proposal includes all county townships except Newberry Twp., which already has an aggregation program.

County Administrator Charlotte Coffey said the proposal was made after talks with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and its Ohio Service Corporation aggregation program.

Those organizations are working with more than two dozen counties on efforts to save money for eligible customers, Colley said.

The goal of the aggregation programs is to allow eligible households and small businesses to save money on the generation portion of their electric bills by grouping together. This increases their purchasing power, Colley said.

Home and small business owners would have the opportunity to opt out of any aggregation program.

The city of Troy currently has an electric aggregation program along with West Milton, Covington and Bradford, all villages.

The county board of elections will be asked to place the questions on the appropriate ballots Nov. 8.

In a statement, the commissioners said the exploration of aggregation opportunities comes with AES electric raising the price per kilowatt hour this summer and “a natural gas commodities market well over double what it was last year.”

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