CLEVELAND -- "The strange and volatile energy markets the world has seen in recent months have caught up with NOPEC, the region's largest energy aggregator that supplies power to more than half a million people in more than 240 Ohio communities.

The rates NOPEC charges customers, which in the past have often been lower than what utilities would charge, are now deep underwater compared with the current standard service offering customers would get by default. NOPEC's rates are now about twice what customers would pay to their utility by default — a rate that is shown on their bills as the "price to compare" and is obvious to consumers.

As a result, NOPEC is cutting nearly all its electric customers loose — about 550,000 out of a total of just over 560,000."

-- Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland

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