Latest news with #PublicUtilitiesCommissionofOhio
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How sensors, software, and other tech could help Ohio's aging power grid
A new state law will require Ohio utilities and regulators to consider how technology might offer cost-effective options for improving the state's aging electric grid. Ohio's grid, like those in many states, faces rising repair and maintenance costs, growing demand from data centers and other new customers, and increased risks as climate change fuels more frequent severe weather and outages. House Bill 15, signed last month by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, calls for a focus on software and hardware solutions to boost the safety, reliability, efficiency, and capacity of existing infrastructure. Clean energy advocates are hopeful the investments will also allow the grid to accommodate more renewable energy and battery storage projects, which can suffer costs and delays related to transmission bottlenecks. 'This is a really, really great inclusion in the bill,' said Chris Tavenor, an attorney at the Ohio Environmental Council, an advocacy group. Advanced transmission technologies that utilities must contemplate under HB 15 include things like sensors that allow lines to safely carry more electricity when conditions are favorable, a concept known as dynamic line rating. Digital controllers can remotely adjust the amount of power flowing through different parts of the grid, while topology optimization software can reroute power around congested areas, like a navigation app for electricity. A key benefit of these technologies is that they can be used with existing infrastructure. When wires do need to be replaced, advanced conductors provide an energy-saving option. Those conductors use carbon composites or other materials to carry more electricity with less loss of that energy, compared to traditional wires of similar diameter. A high-tech approach can create space on the grid for more renewable energy to come online. That would lessen the need to run expensive, polluting coal-fired power plants, said Rob Kelter, a senior attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center, a legal advocacy organization based in the Midwest. Besides helping to mitigate climate change, less pollution would help people's health as well, Tavenor said. Under HB 15, owners of high-voltage power lines must file annual reports showing which advanced transmission technologies they considered as part of their five-year forecasts. Those companies will also need to identify areas of the grid with congestion, and compare the cost of addressing it with traditional versus advanced technologies. The reports will be available to the public, and interested parties may ask the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to hold a hearing on whether utilities properly reported transmission information and whether they should be able to recover costs from customers. The Ohio Power Siting Board must also require companies to consider technology solutions before it approves any new transmission projects. Companies would have to file reports and expert testimony to support any decision to forego advanced technologies in favor of conventional projects, Kelter said. Advocacy groups and other stakeholders 'would have a chance to similarly argue that those technologies are available and that they're cost-effective, and that they would be able to alleviate congestion and delay the need for new transmission lines,' Kelter added. The law requires the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to study the costs and benefits of the various technologies, including how to streamline their deployment. That report will be due by March 1 next year. Some Ohio utilities have already been exploring the potential for advanced transmission technologies. In 2023, AES installed 42 dynamic-line-rating sensors at towers along five transmission lines owned by its Ohio and Indiana utilities. The companies shared early results last year showing that installing the sensors was cheaper and faster than replacing power lines, and using the sensors increased the system's electricity-carrying capacity. American Transmission Systems, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, is planning to spend nearly $900 million on dozens of transmission projects across Ohio in the coming years. 'We are currently reviewing House Bill 15 and exploring how its provisions around advanced transmission technologies could be integrated into our planning to strengthen the power grid for Ohio customers,' said FirstEnergy spokesperson Lauren Siburkis. Many of the law's potential benefits hinge on how the Ohio Power Siting Board and Public Utilities Commission of Ohio implement its terms when making decisions on siting and electric rates, Tavenor noted. The law's advanced technology provisions only apply to high-voltage parts of the grid that move electricity over long distances. It doesn't require utilities to consider high-tech approaches to improving the local distribution lines that deliver electricity to homes and businesses. So, for example, AEP Ohio won't need to consider advanced transmission technologies in its latest rate case filed on May 30, spokesperson Laura Arenschield said. That's because AEP wants to use the 2.14% increase in base rates to pay for improvements to its local distribution system, not the AEP transmission network. Similarly, the new law won't address grid inequities affecting disadvantaged communities in FirstEnergy's Ohio territory, which the Interstate Renewable Energy Council described in a report released earlier this year. Even so, investments that use existing system capacity more effectively can still promote equity by reducing the need to build all-new transmission lines. Siting such infrastructure 'can be incredibly invasive and inequitable, harming both communities and ecosystems,' said report author Shay Banton, who is a regulatory program engineer and energy justice policy advocate at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. Building less brand-new transmission can also save consumers money. Ohioans have generally paid for transmission maintenance and upgrades through a 'rider' on their bills. For the average AEP Ohio consumer, that extra charge is roughly $40 per month. HB 15, however, aims to get rid of single-issue riders, so in the future, utilities will instead have to consider transmission costs through rate cases that consider all utility costs and expenses and are heavily scrutinized by regulators. That could also lead to lower costs or at least smaller increases. 'Ohio utility consumers already are burdened by billions in utility transmission projects,' said Maureen Willis, who represents the interests of Ohio's utility customers in her role as the state's consumers' counsel. 'By adopting advanced transmission technology, these costs can be reduced, staving off unnecessary 'gold-plating' by utilities, giving consumers more bang for the buck. We strongly advocate for this approach to transmission spending.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Your Ohio electric bills are probably going up this month
**Related Video Above: Major rise in electric bill prices went into effect in May 2023. CLEVELAND (WJW) —FirstEnergy customers are being alerted their electric bills may be getting more expensive starting this month due to energy market price. As of June 1, residential customer rates for those on the standard service offer rose about 2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), according to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). The rate increase does not include those who are enrolled with a competitive supplier or a government aggregation, such as the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council (NOPEC). Statehouse effort to repeal HB6 moving forward See the price hikes right here. For those with Cleveland Electric Illuminating for instance, that rate doesn't mean a 27% increase to the entire bill, but to the supplier portion of the bill. Energy demand, such as from large data centers around the state, and limited supply continue to drive these costs, J.P. Blackwood, a spokesperson for the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel told FOX 8. It's important to note that FirstEnergy delivers the electricity but does not generate electricity. Capacity prices, only a small portion of your bill, are going up about 800% following the latest auction by PJM Interconnection, which affects June 2025 through May 2026. This latest increase does not have to do with FirstEnergy asking the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to increase customers' base rates back in April. Ohioans can soon buy over twice as much nonmedical marijuana At the time, they said it would help its Ohio companies 'recover their costs of providing distribution service to customers, including service reliability improvements made in recent years,' according to a statement from the company. Since FirstEnergy's last base rate review in 2009, its Ohio companies — Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison — have reportedly invested millions of dollars to modernize and strengthen the distribution system which help reduce the size and length of power outages, according to the company. Following multiple public hearings in Northeast Ohio, this decision is still ongoing. 'Utilities need money, but they need to be spending consumers' money only on what's needed and also what's prudent,' Blackwood said. Those interested in trying to save money on their bill have the option to look at other energy suppliers on PUCO's Apples to Apples site. Check out Energy Choice Ohio's ways to make your home more energy efficient right here. Find out more about your FirstEnergy bill right here. For those in need of assistance to manage their electricity bill head to the following website: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio grid disparities leave some areas with older, outage-prone equipment
Ohio consumer and environmental advocates are calling on state regulators to address disparities within FirstEnergy's grid after a recent report found disadvantaged communities are more likely to rely on older, more outage-prone equipment. Areas defined as disadvantaged under the Biden administration's Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool were twice as likely to have low-voltage circuits compared to other parts of FirstEnergy's Ohio territory, according to the study by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. Equipment was also generally older and had less capacity for normal and overload situations. The results reflect historical patterns of underinvestment in disadvantaged communities, the report says, but the full scope of the problem — including across Ohio's other utilities — is unclear due to the lack of information from utilities and regulators. 'The public availability of any utility data is very, very limited in Ohio,' said report author Shay Banton, a regulatory program engineer and energy justice policy advocate for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The Ohio Environmental Council submitted the report as part of FirstEnergy's pending rate case before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and is asking regulators to address the topic in an evidentiary hearing set for May 5. The state of the local grid matters when it comes to the reliability of customers' electric service, their ability to add distributed renewable energy resources like rooftop solar, and a community's potential to attract business investments that could improve its economic conditions. Regulated electric utilities file reliability reports each spring that focus on two commonly used metrics. The system average interruption frequency index, or SAIFI, shows how many outages occurred per customer. The customer average interruption duration index, or CAIDI, measures the average length of time for restoring service to customers who lose power. The annual reports also list factors involved in outages, with breakouts for transmission-related service problems and major events. Major events such as severe weather are considered statistical outliers that don't count for calculating whether utilities meet their company-specific standards for CAIDI and SAIFI. While weather accounted for the majority of time Ohioans went without power last year, equipment failures also triggered thousands of outages. For the ninth year in a row, at least one Ohio utility company failed to meet reliability standards, reports filed this month show. Both AEP Ohio and FirstEnergy's Toledo Edison missed their marks for the average time before power is restored for customers who experience outages. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio also collects data on the worst-performing circuits. Individual circuits serve anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand customers. However, the state doesn't post these reports online or disclose the circuit's exact locations, which could be used to show whether they are concentrated in disadvantaged communities. The SAIFI and CAIDI metrics used by state regulators did not show significant disparities between disadvantaged neighborhoods and other areas in FirstEnergy's territory. But Banton said those reliability metrics rely on averages for large groups, which can obscure disparities. They said that utilities should also be required to publicly report the number of customers experiencing frequent service interruptions and the number of customers who faced long outages. Utilities in Ohio tend to be reactive in dealing with circuit problems, Banton said. Communities can face longer outages if utilities wait for equipment to fail before replacing it. Instead, Banton wants utilities' capital investments to address current disparities and then prevent them from recurring in the future. 'The bottom line is that consumers should get reliable service, and utilities are obligated to provide reliable service,' said Merrilee Embs, a spokesperson for the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which did not work on the report. The group is concerned about whether utilities' capital improvement spending directly benefits customers — an issue that relates to grid disparities. 'FirstEnergy's (and other Ohio utilities') failure to implement grid modernization plans in a way that benefits residential consumers likely contributes to grid disparities such as those described in the [study],' Embs wrote via email after reviewing the report. FirstEnergy has challenged the Ohio Environmental Council's objections about grid disparities in its rate case. Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is due to consider revisions to the annual reliability reporting requirements by Sept. 30, 2026. The commission will likely start accepting comments on the rules later this year, said spokesperson Matt Schilling. The quality of a neighborhood's grid influences more than whether residents' lights stay on. 'These inequities can have serious consequences for customer access to distributed energy resources, which can save money,' said Karin Nordstrom, a lawyer for the Ohio Environmental Council. Rooftop solar or other distributed clean energy can add to traffic on local grid circuits, posing a challenge for equipment that's older or has lower voltages or capacity. Those circuits generally can handle less grid traffic, Banton said. In contrast, newer, high-voltage circuits tend to have 'less bumps and less potholes [along with] better on-ramps.' The grid's quality and capacity also impact an area's economic development. Historically, utilities have focused capital investment on places where people are moving or where they expect new industrial demand. That approach exacerbates inequity, Banton said. Even if businesses otherwise wanted to move to disadvantaged areas, poor electrical infrastructure may lead them to go elsewhere to avoid huge costs for upgrading the local grid, they said. 'The energy transition is in full effect, but many of the communities that suffer first and worst from climate change are not able to make the transition due to underinvestment in infrastructure,' said Tony Reames, a professor of environmental justice at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, who did not work on the new report. He served at the U.S. Department of Energy as deputy director for energy justice and principal deputy director for state and community energy programs during the Biden administration. Because utilities have failed to invest in and maintain the grid evenly throughout their service territories, an equity-based approach to infrastructure modernization should make sure resources now go to areas that were left behind, Reames said. He supports the report's call for more granular data, including details on customers with repeated or prolonged outages. The report also calls on utilities to publish maps showing grid capacity, and information about which census tracts are served by each circuit and substation transformers. 'I often say, 'The data you don't have is the problem you don't see,'' Reames noted. 'Difficulties accessing data or the lack of certain data availability are sometimes a result of entities not wanting to confirm issues that are anecdotally known.' Love Canary Media and find our reporting valuable? Please consider financially supporting our work with a donation. Thank you!
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands of AES Ohio customers impacted by bill issue; some see spike by as much as $400
For weeks, AES Ohio customers have been coming forward with what they feel are unusually high bills. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] News Center 7′s John Bedell has new information about the problem. He will have the latest LIVE on News Center 7 at 6:00. Since our report on Jan. 28, over 60 people across the Miami Valley have come forward saying they had a similar experience. Now AES Ohio has revealed how many customers have been impacted and what's going on. News Center 7 reached out to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who said the following: 'The PUCO has heard from several dozen AES Ohio customers related to high bills so far in 2025. PUCO staff is aware of billing anomalies for some AES Ohio customers and is investigating. Regulations require electric distribution utilities to provide accurate billing. Utilities are also required to offer payment plans for customers who may be having trouble paying their bill. Any customer experiencing billing issues should contact the utility to resolve the issue. They can also contact the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who can answer any requestions and help resolve disputes between customers and their utility.' We will continue to update this story. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers mull energy overhaul as data center demand piles up
Aerial photograph of the OVEC-operated Kyger Creek Power Plant in Cheshire. (Getty Images.) Ohio lawmakers on the House Energy Committee began discussion this week of a measure that would overhaul the state's energy landscape and got an update from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Commission Chair Jenifer French argued that growing demand as manufacturing developments and data centers move to Ohio is out of whack with the number of aging fossil fuel plants reaching the end of their life. 'The growth in demand and retiring resources is leading to a supply and demand imbalance,' she argued. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Although most of Ohio's current electricity generation comes from natural gas and coal-fired plants, French warned that the facilities waiting their turn to get connected to the grid lean heavily toward renewables like solar that provide intermittent power. She argued the state needs to encourage more 'base load generation' — the kind of 'always-on' energy sources that provide consistent power to the grid. Although French pointed to resources like coal, natural gas, and nuclear, renewable sources like hydroelectric and biomass can provide consistent power as well. 'In order to meet the needs of growing demand in Ohio,' she said, 'it is important to encourage construction of base load generation, which can be fueled by resources right here in Ohio.' In her written testimony, French placed specific emphasis on generating that power by burning natural gas. State Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, described his legislation as an effort to 'modernize' the state's energy framework as demand explodes. 'Over the past five years,' he explained, 'we have witnessed an unprecedented surge in energy demand, with data centers alone consuming 600 megawatts of electricity. (AEP) forecasts that this will increase to 5000 megawatts by 2030. This trend is not likely to reverse.' In terms of energy, Klopfenstein said, Ohio has been a victim of its own success. Major development projects from Intel, Honda, and most recently Anduril are great for jobseekers, but they come with ever greater demands for energy. 'Without new generation, we could face potential shortages,' Klopfenstein said. 'And I probably would change that word could to will face potential shortages.' His goal is to increase base load generation, and he contends House Bill 15 will make it easier for new generation facilities to come online by keeping big distribution companies out of a market where they might crowd out smaller players. Klopfenstein's proposal also requires utilities to offer service at the market rate and repeals electric security plans which allow providers to place surcharges on monthly bills to cover infrastructure investments. His bill would also repeal the widely derided surcharges to bail out two Ohio Valley Electric Company coal plants that were part of the corrupt House Bill 6 legislation in 2019 that's been the subject of federal and state prosecutions. But by the same token, Klopfenstein also proposes eliminating a fund benefiting solar facilities that was part of HB 6. 'It is not the role of the state to favor one form of generation over another,' he argued. 'Instead, we should open the market to dispatchable energy generation to address our future shortages.' Democrats on the panel pushed back, highlighting a recent law allowing county officials to block solar and wind development when similar authority doesn't exist for fossil fuel plants. 'I'm wary of some of the paradoxes that may be created by letting local governments sort of ban wind and solar, strangling parts of the market,' state Rep. Derrick Hall, D-Akron, said, 'when the state takes a position that that's not what we ought to be doing.' Klopfenstein admitted he was 'not in love' with that bill when it was approved but chalked it up to a question of local control and property rights. 'I don't think the discussion on base load generation, which is sort of the target of this bill, will get into land use rights,' he said. Another Democrat on the committee, state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, asked about the more than $400 million ratepayers have already shelled out for those coal plants — can they get a refund? 'We can't change the past,' Klopfenstein argued, adding if Ohio wants to attract new energy companies, 'when I look in arrears to asking for a refund, I think that sets a bad precedent. And I think it sets a risk factor that it would warrant some people not to come here.' Already, an outside group called Alliance for Competitive Power has cut ads in favor of Klopfenstein's legislation. That group includes Vistra, which generates more than 5,500 megawatts in Ohio across several facilities including the Davis-Besse and Perry Nuclear plants as well as Alpha Generation which operates a 940-megawatt natural gas facility in Lordstown. Maryland-based Constellation and Texas-based Talen Energy are also part of the group, but because it's organized as a 501(c)(4) it's unclear if other companies are involved or who much the coalition members have contributed. Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
