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Council schedules public hearings on joining NOPEC aggregation after presentation from NOPEC officials
Summary
NOPEC officials presented municipal aggregation benefits; council set two public hearings for Feb. 24 and moved associated ordinances and rules to public hearing, with motions carrying.
North Canton City Council heard a presentation from NOPEC officials on the benefits of joining the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC) and set two public hearings for Feb. 24 to consider joining NOPEC and adopting NOPEC's plan-of-operation governance rules.
NOPEC representatives Ross MacDonald (director of community expansion) and Aaron Markovi (director of community investment and economic development) described NOPEC as an aggregator that negotiates bulk electricity and natural-gas supply for member communities. Ross told council NOPEC is "the largest aggregation in the state of Ohio" and said participating communities receive an annual Energized Community grant roughly calculated at $5 per account; NOPEC staff projected approximately $28,000–$29,000 per year for North Canton based on estimated account counts. Ross also announced a one-time, unrestricted $10,000 transition grant to help the city move from its current broker to NOPEC, and said NOPEC's supplier is NextEra Energy.
Aaron outlined NOPEC grant, lending and PACE (property-assessed clean energy) programs aimed at small businesses, nonprofits and municipalities. He described grant awards from the NOPEC Foundation (competitive grants) and lending programs including small-cap lending and PACE loans (program cap up to $1 million) to finance energy-efficiency projects.
Staff framed the choice for the council as either returning to the market independently using a broker (as in prior procurement) or joining a consortium such as NOPEC. Administration recommended public hearings, noting that price estimates from the city's broker and NOPEC were comparable but NOPEC offers additional community grants, small-business lending, foundation grants, and consumer-protection activities.
Council voted to set the first of two public hearings on Feb. 24 at 3:00 p.m. and the second on Feb. 24 at 6:45 p.m. The council also set hearings for the companion ordinance adopting NOPEC's plan of operation/governance and moved to postpone related Washington Terrace action until after the Feb. 24 hearing. All motions carried.
Ending: NOPEC will return for public hearings; council will consider ordinances to join NOPEC and to adopt NOPEC's governance rules at the Feb. 24 hearings.
