PUCO “Apples to Apples” — Don’t Get Ripped Off on Electric & Gas

You can shop for energy in Ohio — but nobody should shop for you

Here's the part of Ohio energy choice that never changes, no matter what anyone at your door implies: Ohio Edison still owns the wires, still reads the meter, and still sends the same crews when the power goes out. Enbridge Gas Ohio (the old Dominion Energy Ohio — renamed after a 2024 sale) still owns the pipes. The only thing you're choosing is the supplier — the company behind one line on your bill. Your lights and your furnace work exactly the same either way.

That's why the state's free comparison site is worth twenty minutes a year, and why the clipboard at your front door is worth zero. Every legitimate offer sits on the PUCO's Apples to Apples chart, in random order, any day you care to look. An offer that's “only good today” — or that requires a peek at your bill — was never really an offer. This guide gives you the numbers to check and the words to say.

The one number that decides everything

Your Ohio Edison bill prints a price to compare — the supply price you pay by doing nothing. A supplier's offer only saves you money if it's below that number; above it, you lose. On the gas side, the default is the Standard Choice Offer (SCO), a monthly market-based rate set through a PUCO-supervised auction that the utility isn't allowed to profit on — which makes it genuinely hard to beat. Find your number first; measure every pitch against it second. No number, no decision.

Using energychoice.ohio.gov — the honest chart

1. Type energychoice.ohio.gov into the address bar (not a search engine — commercial lookalike sites buy ads above the real one; the official chart ends in .ohio.gov).
2. Pick Electric or Natural Gas, then your utility — Ohio Edison or Enbridge Gas Ohio for most of Portage County.
3. Read the chart: price, fixed or variable, term length, early termination fee, monthly fee. Offers appear in random order — nobody pays to be first.
4. Favor plain fixed rates with no monthly fee and a $0 exit fee, priced below your price to compare.
5. To switch, you sign up with the supplier directly — then your utility mails a confirmation notice, and you get 7 days from its postmark to cancel free by calling the utility. Switching itself costs nothing and takes about a billing cycle.

The teaser-rate trap

The most common way careful people overpay isn't a scam — it's a low “introductory” rate that quietly converts to a variable rate after a month or two, or a fixed contract that rolls onto month-to-month pricing at renewal. The fix is boring and works: skip teaser plans, and write every contract end date on the calendar with a note to re-check the chart that month. The customers paying the most are usually the ones who compared once, years ago, and never looked again.

That “you will be automatically enrolled” letter

Government aggregation is real, legal, and voter-approved: your city or township pools residents' buying power and negotiates a group rate, and you're enrolled unless you opt out — in Northeast Ohio the letter often comes from NOPEC, a nonprofit council serving a couple hundred communities. It's usually a reasonable deal, but “usually reasonable” isn't “always best.” Put the letter's rate next to your price to compare and the best clean offer on the chart, and let the lowest true number win. Opting out is free at the enrollment windows, and the 7-day rescission applies here too.

At the door: red flags and the script

• “I'm from the electric company” — Ohio Edison doesn't send door-to-door salespeople to discuss your rate, and suppliers are prohibited from claiming to represent your utility. That sentence ends the conversation.
• “Can I see your bill?” — the brightest red flag there is. Your account number is on that bill, and it's all a supplier needs to switch you (“slamming”).
• “This rate is only available today” — real offers live on the state chart every day. A price that dies when the door closes was pressure, not a price.
• The all-purpose script: “No thank you. I don't discuss my utility accounts at the door. You're welcome to leave printed materials.” Then stop talking. That's a complete, polite ending.
• Many communities keep a do-not-knock registry — call your city or township hall and ask. Ohio law also gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel a door-to-door sale in writing, on top of the 7-day energy rescission.

Switched without your OK? The undo, in order

1. Call your utility (the number on your bill): “I did not authorize a supplier switch. I want to rescind it.” Within 7 days of the confirmation notice's postmark, this is quick.
2. Call the supplier; tell them the enrollment was unauthorized. Note the date and name.
3. Complain to the PUCO at (800) 686-7826 — supplier sales practices are exactly their job.
4. If the pitch was deceptive or money was lost, add the Ohio Attorney General: (800) 282-0515.

No computer? No problem

The PUCO's own call center — (800) 686-7826, weekday business hours — handles Apples to Apples questions and requests, and can help you compare current offers for your territory over the phone. Or hand the job to a trusted family member with your price to compare and the guide's worksheet page. Or make it part of a visit with me: bills out on the kitchen table, chart up, worksheet filled in, decision made — including the perfectly good decision to stay put.

What's in the printable PDF

• How Ohio energy choice works — supply vs. delivery, and why your outage service never changes.
• Who's who for Portage County: Ohio Edison on electric, Enbridge Gas Ohio (formerly Dominion) on gas.
• The price to compare and the gas SCO — where to find them and how to use them.
• Fixed vs. variable, and the teaser-rate trap that catches careful people.
• A step-by-step tour of energychoice.ohio.gov and every column of the comparison chart.
• Fine print decoded: early termination fees, monthly fees, and what happens at renewal.
• How to switch — and the 7-day rescission window that lets you undo it free.
• Government aggregation and NOPEC letters: how opt-out enrollment works and how to decide.
• Anatomy of a door-to-door pitch, red flag by red flag.
• A cut-out by-the-door script page — word for word, politeness included.
• Slamming: how to spot an unauthorized switch and the exact order of calls to reverse it.
• Two fill-in worksheets: what am I paying now, and is this offer actually a deal?

Why I wrote this

I'm a tech guy, not an energy broker — I don't sell electricity and nobody pays me a commission on any of this. But energy pitches land on the same front porches and phone lines as every other scheme I help customers untangle, and the defense is the same: one official website, one number off your own bill, and a short script for the door. This is the handout version of what I walk through at kitchen tables, and it doubles as a handout for my senior-center talks. — Bill