AUSTINTOWN — Residents will see considerable increases in their electric bills in June and township officials want them to understand why.

Letters went out near the end of March notifying residents of the township’s new agreement with Texas-based Dynegy for a 12-month fixed rate that is nearly double what they are paying now. But Trustee Bruce Shepas said the substantial rate hike is not unique to Austintown.

“The township hall is getting flooded with calls about it, and I wanted to jump out ahead and get people more informed about how the process works,” he said.

The rate will increase from $0.0499 cents per kilowatt hour to $0.0933 cents beginning in May and residents will see the rate reflected on their June bill.

Shepas said the township received three different quotes and the new rate was the best of them. He said the township made the decision based on the best fixed rate and the fact that Dynegy allows customers to opt out for free.

“You can go and find a lower rate on Apples to Apples (through energychoice.ohio.gov) right now,” Shepas said. “But be careful because you may be signing up for an introductory rate and in three or four months it will increase and it may not have an opt out. We encourage you to shop, but just stay away from the variable rates and be sure your provider has a free or inexpensive opt out.”

Shepas said the township’s energy aggregation broker, Independent Energy Consultants, has warned the township that the price per kilowatt hour may go as high as 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

In December, Boardman trustees announced that their rate of $0.0487 cents per kilowatt hour through Akron-based Energy Harbor, which Austintown also has been using, would increase to $0.0798 cents per kilowatt hour with Dynegy. Like Austintown, that was the best rate they could secure.

Shepas said that when he, fellow trustee Robert Santos and Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito were in Columbus for the State of the State address in March, they spoke with representatives from NOPEC, the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, which aggregates electric and water rates in Mahoning County for Beaver, Berlin, Ellsworth, Goshen, Green, Jackson, Milton, Sebring, Smith and Springfield townships.

Shepas said Canfield was able to secure a slightly cheaper rate — about 0.02 cents per kilowatt hour less than the new Austintown rate with NOPEC — but the aggregator was unable to bring Austintown on board.

“If it was up to me, we’d have gone with NOPEC, but they were not able to handle us and Canfield,” he said. “NOPEC said they wanted to help but could not do it in time. They could not make it happen for our residents before May.”

Shepas, who owns Austintown Bounce, said he sympathizes with residents.

“My average electric bill is about $900 per month and I use LED for virtually everything at my business,” he said. “So I know this increase is going to be a fortune for me.”

Shepas said state leaders, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have attributed the increases to multiple causes, including energy costs associated with running AI technology, increased sales of electric vehicles, and the closure of many coal-fired electric plants.

“Modern technology has outgrown our energy infrastructure,” Shepas said.

In December, Boardman Trustee Tom Costello said NOPEC representatives attributed much of the cost increase to the “closure of coal-fired plants without appropriate replacement energy providers being up and running yet,” he said.

Among those plants set to close or change fuel sources is the James M. Gavin plant in Cheshire, along the West Virginia border. News reports in October said the new owner of the plant intends to shutter or convert it by 2031 and that several other plants in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan may close as soon as 2028.

Scandal has reached a heavy hand into Ohioans’ pockets as well.

Ohio Capital Journal reporter Marty Schladen reported in December that, in the wake of the 2019 First Energy scandal, Duke Energy — the third-largest shareholder (at 9%) in the Ohio Valley Electric Cooperative (OVEC) that owns the Clifty Creek plant in Madison, Indiana and Kyger Creek plant, also in Cheshire — has benefitted from $36 million in subsidies from Ohio utility customers.

“As part of 2019’s scandal-plagued House Bill 6, Ohio ratepayers so far have been required to pay more than $400 million to subsidize the plants,” Schladen wrote.

He noted that Akron’s FirstEnergy also “put up $60 million to be the biggest beneficiary of the $1.3 billion bailout that resulted from the bribery scheme that sent former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, to federal prison for 20 years.”