July 21, 2026
The OEC Joins AES Ohio Rate Case Settlement
For Immediate Release:
July 21, 2026
Contact:
Karlena Wallace, Communications Director
media@theoec.org 614-487-7506
The OEC Joins AES Ohio Rate Case Settlement
Columbus, Ohio — The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) has signed a settlement agreement to resolve AES Ohio’s Rate Case. The OEC joins this unopposed settlement because it adds important customer programs to help manage load on the grid, adds important consumer protections to ensure data centers pay their fair share, and lowers the return AES Ohio can recover from customers on its spending.
This settlement results in two new demand response programs which will help avoid blackouts or brown outs by easing stress on the grid during high traffic times and help lower transmission costs by adding more megawatts into PJM’s strained capacity market. The settlement also reduces AES Ohio’s current return on equity from 9.99% to 9.50%, which means a larger portion of consumers’ bills goes toward funding grid investment over company profits. This ensures utility spending will go to needed upgrades rather than the utility’s profits. The settlement also puts in place performance improvement metrics which could reward the utility for exceptional performance or penalize the company for poor performance. Finally, this settlement introduces a new data center tariff. This tariff is a very important first step toward ensuring that data centers are paying their fair share of the added costs they are bringing to the grid.
The following quote can be attributed, in whole or in part, to Karin Nordstrom, Senior Attorney, Clean Energy for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC):
“The unopposed agreement reached by the parties in AES Ohio’s rate case reflects an important step forward towards utility accountability in a time of rising energy costs and grid reliability concerns. The settlement lowers the return AES Ohio receives from customers. It also puts guardrails in place to penalize overspending and poor performance while rewarding better spending and performance controls. The settlement also creates demand response programs, getting more use out of the existing grid while making it more resilient. Finally, the settlement takes an important step towards ensuring that costs caused by data centers are allocated to data centers and not subsidized by other customers.”
The following quote can be attributed, in whole or in part, to Janean Weber, Senior Attorney, for Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC):
“Ohio families pay the price when the grid gets stressed, through higher bills or outages on the hottest days of summer. This settlement’s new demand response program gives AES Ohio’s residential customers a tool to help ease that strain. It also contributes to the reliability of the grid for everyone. Relying on demand response to get more value out of the infrastructure we already have is one of the most cost-effective ways to keep the lights on. All of Ohio’s utilities should take advantage of this option and we are glad to see AES Ohio agree to do so.”
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The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) protects the environment and health of all Ohio communities through legal and policy advocacy, decision-maker accountability, and civic engagement.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center is the Midwest’s premier environmental legal advocacy organization. ELPC uses the power of the law and strategic advocacy campaigns to create climate change solutions, advance clean energy, protect public health, and preserve the Midwest’s wild and natural places.
