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More at OHEA.org Straight line winds slam into Ohio leaving behind high water and costly damage.

And is there relief from soaring energy costs?

A chat with the state's consumer utility advocate.

This weekend the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Communities across Ohio are cleaning up after derecho storms slammed into the Midwest this week, leaving at least one Ohioan dead.

Thousands of Ohio homes and businesses without power and millions of dollars in damage.

State officials toured Perry and Muskingum counties on Wednesday, where some of the worst flooding was reported in Crookes ville.

One person died in nearby Roseville.

Governor Mike DeWine mobilized the Ohio National Guard and issued a state of emergency for Perry and Muskingum counties, and Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther also declared an emergency.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado hit the south side of the city on Tuesday Ohio Emergency Management Agency director says local and state officials need to work on getting federal funds to help with the damage.

differences.

So the counties have a threshold that they have to meet, that each county is different based on their county status, their population.

Then those get calculated.

And if they and when they meet that threshold, that's one, one element checked off.

But then we have to calculate them as a state.

And we have a baseline or a threshold that we have to meet for us to move forward for, for a potential federal request for assistance.

I do want to caution all of you, though, that if we don't meet federal assistance, we still have a lot of state agencies and the ability to help people recover both short term and long term recovery.

It's it's a process.

It can take a little bit of time.

We'll we will address the individual assessments first because that's people.

And then second we will look at those public assistance damages which look at infrastructure road bridges and governmental losses.

In southeast Ohio.

Athens reported heavy flooding and a funnel cloud was spotted in Jackson County.

In northeast Ohio, a lightning strike left 19 people hurt in the outdoor yard of the Grafton Correctional Institution in Lorain County.

Some of the 1700 units of housing set up for people in recovery from substance abuse in Ohio are not accredited, and state leaders say that opens the door to fraud and could put residents at risk.

Governor Mike DeWine signed an emergency executive order on Monday, giving the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health the ability to directly certify recovery housing for the foreseeable future.

DeWine says there are a growing number of unregulated recovery houses operating without certification from the two organizations the state contracts with to a credit recovery housing.

These non certified homes are operating illegally.

The Department of Behavioral Health has already taken legal action against a number of moles operating without the necessary accreditation under the existing policy, but frankly, we have to do more.

Further, many of these unregulated recovery houses reportedly have very poor, unsafe living conditions.

We're particularly seeing this in southern Ohio, where communities were heavily impacted by opioid epidemic.

Next, in some areas, we're seeing potential abuse of the system, specifically between recovery housing operators and recovery treatment providers.

And that deserves further scrutiny to determine if it is in fact fraudulent.

For There were 356 recovery houses in Ohio in 2022.

That has exploded to more than 1700 houses this year.

111 of them are in a county which was the epicenter of the opioid crisis and had the state's worst overdose death rate.

Republican Representative Justin lives in the county.

We believe in recovery.

We want people to get better.

And if someone is listening today struggling with addiction, I want you to hear this clearly.

Please get help.

There is hope for you, but compassion for someone struggling with addiction does not require us to tolerate someone exploiting them.

And unfortunately, that is what has happened in parts of Ohio's recovery housing system.

Not just in my district, but all over the state.

Over the last three years, this has become actually the number one issue for my district.

Recovery housing is supposed to be a part of the solution, and good recovery housing still is.

There's wonderful providers doing this work for the right reasons.

Changing lives every single day.

But bad actors have discovered something very disturbing.

You can profit from addiction even when recovery is not happening, and without strong enough standards and oversight.

Parts of this system have become the Wild West.

Bill, to put more restrictions on recovery, housing passed the Ohio House unanimously in February, but with lawmakers out till after the election, it hasn't moved further.

The executive order ends in 120 days, but DeWine has asked the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review or Jacob to codify it.

And President Trump came to Ohio this week, along with ESPN commentator and former NFL player Pat McAfee, for the finale of his Patriot Games competition, a national youth athletic contest he added to his freedom to 50 celebration.

The top male and female winners neither from Ohio, one $125,000 college scholarships at the tournament in Geneva.

And this was a big year for the Ohio State Fair, which set records for midway spending, concession sales, and attendance.

Midway revenue at the Ohio State Fair was up 8.4% to $3.3 million.

Food and drink sales were up 12.6% to $9.2 million, and attendance was up 5.8%, and the more than 1 million visitors topped the all time attendance record set in 2023.

This was the first year for major renovations and some new buildings and attractions.

As part of governor Mike DeWine Expo 2050, a long term plan for the state fairgrounds in Columbus that includes the Ohio Made Children's Carousel, which offered 26,000 rides during the fair's 12 day run.

The Ohio Expo Center also reports visitors bought 93,677 lemonades of all varieties, 36,747 deviled eggs, including the new buffalo chicken dip, green eggs and turkey, ham and Bloody Mary varieties, and 46,631 foods on sticks.

Electric bills have climbed by 11.8% statewide over the last year, according to a report compiled by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Eight cities recorded increases in the double digits, and the increases were over 20% in Ashtabula, Cleveland and Dayton.

Natural gas bills in Ohio are also up, but they're up less than a point overall.

But Cincinnati, which is served by Duke Energy of Ohio, reported in nearly 25% increase.

Data centers are getting a lot of the blame, but there have also been big spikes in regional grid capacity auction prices.

I talked about what ratepayers are facing with Ohio Consumers Council.

Maureen Willis, who leads the state agency that represents residential utility customers on rate cases and other matters before the PUC.

Oh, the regional power grid operator, PJM, fell short in securing electric reserves in its most recent auction, which means that demand regionally is moving faster than generation.

As I understand it, the price set at that auction also means electricity bills will not be coming down soon for Ohioans.

Is that correct?

Unfortunately.

That's right.

Electric prices are rising and I think the elevated prices are here to stay, unfortunately.

Now, PJM cited data center growth is a reason for increased demand.

Your office has said not only do data centers create relatively few permanent jobs after they're built, but you also seem to share that concern about the strain on utilities posed by data centers.

In fact, you've called for interim protections.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Sure.

I think it comes down to really simple point cost causation.

If data centers are causing increase in prices, increase in transmission costs, they should pay for those costs.

Fair share is full share.

So what we have been promoting and advocating at the federal level, as well as the state level, is a statewide tariff to that has protections in it.

We were able to have a statewide tariff in an EP case, and we'd like to see that that become a statewide tariff, not just an EP service territory.

And what that tariff did is just simply put skin in the game for these utilities, for these utilities and the consumers, the data centers, so that when data centers come that they don't leave with consumers holding the bag so requires minimum demand charges, collateral, fixed fees.

It's a way of protecting the everyday consumer from picking up costs or paying for stranded costs caused by the data centers.

You also called for dedicated energy auctions and a 180 day advanced notice requirement.

Also, spark spot market accountability for large users.

All these things tied into data centers and what you'd like to see for them.

Actually, yes, I think that it's a combination of things.

I'm sure you're familiar with the National Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

In fact, governor DeWine just signed that ratepayer protection pledge.

So, yeah, so that's a great idea.

But the devil is in the details.

So we need to make sure that that customers aren't subsidizing these large data centers, billion dollar companies.

And you have to go about it in different ways.

So there's a lot of different tools that we're trying to implement and advocate for to protect consumers.

Now, the data and the data center industry has pushed back on concerns about those facilities driving up costs, saying they're based on forecasts that actually haven't happened and that it's unfair to blame just data centers.

Do you feel that data centers are sharing or bearing too much of the blame for rising costs?

Well, I mean, we don't like to point the fingers, but it's really a matter of simple economics.

You know, in in the PJM region of 13 state region that we're in for generation, there is supply and demand, and the supply really hasn't been keeping up with projected demand.

And so when your supply doesn't keep up with your demand and you have increased demand, the data centers unprecedented demand, not like any other demand we've ever seen.

You know, economics go back to your college course and economics supply decreases or stays stagnant.

Demand increases, the cost increases.

So I think it's very it's legitimate.

It's legitimate to say that yes, these these largely the increase in generation costs, which is what we're talking about at PJM.

Those have been caused by data centers.

When you talk about that tariff, you'd like to see, that's something that would have to go through legislation.

Right.

Well, it could be done.

It could be done statewide.

And yes, in fact, we had legislation that we were discussing this past General Assembly.

I think the Peugeot also has been taking steps on their own.

They have required data center tariffs from certainly from First Energy.

First energy.

We see that recently.

And also there's one actually that's been agreed to in a settlement with AOS at OC.

Signed on to.

So I think that PSU is getting there.

But certainly legislation would be more perhaps more expeditious and go clearly statewide.

There have been a lot of power outages this summer.

So many people in Northeast Ohio have lost their power, often during excessive heat situations that Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio has requested the PUC thoroughly investigate first energy, in particular for recurring outages.

Is there a concern here?

I mean, there are reports that customers lost power a week after the Peugeot rejected First Energy's request to loosen reliability standards.

Or is this just what happens when there's bad weather and heat and that sort of thing?

Well, I think it's beyond that.

I think our point is that customers in northern Ohio, customers of First Energy, have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for increased reliability.

They were sold that distribution investment would be made, it would make their service more reliable.

And it's not.

So we see the reliability as a broken promise for those customers.

And it can be a dangerous thing.

As you as you point out, in this heat, customers without air conditioning and without, you know, refrigeration, all the kinds of things that we come to rely on electricity for.

If you're missing those, that can be a real health concern for consumers.

So it continues to be a problem.

We have been, you know, last year there were outages.

And so we see a repeat of those outages.

And last year after the outages, we called for a full investigation.

There really hasn't been a full public investigation.

The CEO has reported that it's looking into it, and it's it is conducting its investigation, but there's no transparency.

So we would really like to see some transparency and openness about an investigation looking into the first energy outages.

Is there any recourse for ratepayers when they lose the contents of their refrigerator, when they they are suffering in these extended outages or these repeat outages?

Karen.

Unfortunately, no.

The law the law is not written that way.

When you have food outage or food spoilage is there's just nothing in the law.

The current law that would protect consumers.

Consumers, however, can file complaints at the CEO and raise those issues before the PSL.

Not much remedy, but certainly an opportunity to raise those concerns.

The PUC has now reversed its own decision on submitting companies, which are these third parties that by bulk utility services and then resell them to individuals in apartments and that sort of thing.

After the Supreme Court ruled that they must be regulated as public utilities, these submitter and companies must be regulated that way.

The ruling also goes against a bill that would have created new rules for submitting companies that was backed by those companies, but also was vetoed by governor Mike DeWine.

So with all of this in play here, what happens next?

So great question.

What happens next?

We're waiting.

We are.

The commission has finally looked at and said, we want to we want you to file legal documents, briefs to tell us what to do next.

So we are now in the process.

I'll be filed next week of talking about what the next steps are.

And we want the CEO to act expeditiously because we think it was a cut and dry decision by the court.

Wonderful decision.

Very much appreciate, governor DeWine veto of the law that would have stepped back from or created less protections for consumers.

So we'd like to really see this get going and get decisions made by the the Commission as how do we how do we we play out?

How is the court's decision play out for the consumers that are submitted, because those consumers now should have the same protections as other consumers of direct utilities.

So we'll have to see how it plays out.

Again, we'll be filing briefs next week.

So it's up to the commission now to expeditiously act and move forward with the next steps.

What has been the impact of submitting companies on these individuals who they're selling the utility service back to?

Well, what we found in many cases customers paid very high rates.

The rates there was no price regulation.

And a lot of times customers didn't have they don't have the protection that utility customers have, perhaps disconnection protection.

They don't have financial assistance.

They're not required to offer payment plans.

There's a whole slew of protections that they do not have.

And we've seen over the past and it's been going on for a long time.

Karen, I want to say back to 2013, there was a very good dispatch investigation exposé, you might say, about the problems that consumers had.

A lot of it really was tied to really high rates for a very small apartment building.

So we've seen that play out.

We've seen that over the years, plus loss of protection.

So it's been really affecting consumers that are in those buildings.

They haven't been given the protections and it's a lesser service.

It's not the full public utility service that they would get from an EP or Duke or, you know, Centuria.

And these customers don't have the option to go to the Apples to Apples website and change providers.

That is another.

That is another big difference.

Yes, it's called customer choice.

In 1999, the General Assembly decided customer choice was the way the state should go so that customers could choose their supplier.

And when you're in a submarine situation, you cannot choose your supplier.

So that's another reason why we say it really was not.

It's not been a good business model and good practice for Ohio families.

the state's regulated utilities, have to file shut off reports with the PUC every year.

This year, an average of 7.7 customers with.

I'm sorry.

Let's try that whole question again.

I screwed that up.

So all right, the state's regulated utilities have to file shut off reports with the UK every year.

This year, an average of 7.7% of ratepayers with the six regulated utilities.

I'm talking about s Duke Energy, Ohio Power and the three companies associated with First Energy, which are first CEI, Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison had their power disconnected 7.7% on average.

The higher that's higher than in previous times.

We're talking about 344,000 households here.

Is this something that you're concerned about?

Oh, absolutely.

We're concerned.

I think it really is a reflection of the fact that affordability is we're in an affordability crisis.

People are paying more and more for commodities like groceries and gasoline, and they're having to make choices about, should I pay my utility bill or should I pay my medical bill?

So yes, affordability is a really big a big concern.

And I think it's reflected in the disconnections, the rising disconnection rates.

Another thing that I think could be possibly adding to that is the ability of the utilities to use remote shut off with new distribution called Grid Smart, they're able to shut off the consumer remotely.

It used to be you'd have to send a meter reader out.

And that took time.

And that took us as expensive and took a meter reader.

So now all that's gone.

So with a flick of a switch, they can disconnect you.

So I think that is contributing to the high disconnection rates as well.

Can they reconnect with just a flip of the switch.

That obviously though requires a fee.

Yes.

Well.

Well, yes.

And that we have had that argument in cases is if you can do it with the flick of a switch and you're not sending a meter reader out, you really shouldn't have a disconnection charge or a reconnection charge of 40 or $50.

It really should reflect the fact that it can be done very quickly and easily in our, in our view, very inexpensively.

So yeah, it shouldn't be charging consumers these high disconnection and reconnection fees.

On your website, you note that Enbridge Gas, Duke Energy, First Energy as Ohio Aqua, Ohio Water and AEP Ohio are all seeking increases before the PUC ratepayers have seen their electricity bills go up 10 to 15% for electric natural gas bills, I've heard, or even higher.

There are a lot of reasons that are brought about for, you know, whether market forces, rate hikes, that sort of thing.

But I think a lot of people feel really helpless in this, that they feel like there's nothing they can do.

Is there anything they can do?

Well, certainly, Karen, that's a great, great question.

I think there's a couple of things they can do.

First of all, when those rate increases occur, there's usually an opportunity for public, local public hearings so customers can testify and let the CEO know how that increase will affect them and why they might oppose or in some instances, support the rate increase.

So that's one way.

Certainly, consumers can also have their voices heard by going to the PSL and filing something in the case docket, which again conveys their opinion about the rate increase.

So there is that opportunity for public comment.

There is also it's on our website.

We have a great website.

Gov, where we have all kinds of savings tips.

And how can you reduce your usage?

Things like energy efficiency measures, sealing your windows and doors.

We have a whole list of things that you can opportunities that you can use to actually reduce your bill.

So there are some things to do.

Again, it is somewhat limited, but you can have some control.

And that's really one thing that we really stress is that when we're at where we're in these rate cases, we want to make sure that the consumers have those tools and that that means that this should have very low fixed charges.

And most of the charges should be you should be able to reduce with reduced usage.

So yes, reducing usage will make a difference on your bill.

And one of the things that's also talked about is this whole apples to apples comparison, this customer choice there there is some.

There was a report from Ohio State that suggested that it doesn't really reduce cost to consumers as much as maybe they might hope it would.

And that I think that was the whole objective of of shopping.

And when the, the General Assembly said we'll have customer choice, the idea was let the market control the price.

And I do think there's opportunities for savings, but you really have to be careful.

If you're a consumer, you want to look at the and you mentioned the apples to apples.

It's a great website, but you really have to look very closely when you shop.

You know, sometimes there can be hidden charges, exit fees, sometimes there can be, you know, the rates can be only for a short period of time.

So times only for new customers.

That's right.

So there's a lot of bells and whistles and a lot of things that you have to look at.

But it is an opportunity we have found though generally speaking I can't say it.

It is, you know, in the current environment that we're in that generally speaking, staying with the utility under what's called the standard service offer is a is a safe way to save money.

So, you know, yes, the idea was shopping will save money.

Can it save money?

Yes it can.

But you have to really be careful about those offers and really take a very close look at the offer.

So there are savings, but perhaps less than we would have thought.

You are funded by a surcharge on utility bills, and you're kind of the voice for consumers, for ratepayers before the Peugeot when it comes to rate increases and that sort of thing.

Is there an adversarial relationship between ratepayers and utilities and the PUC, or is there an attempt to try to work together to really benefit as much as possible?

Everybody?

Well great question.

You know, I don't like to think of them as our adversaries.

I think of them as our colleagues.

And so there are times when we can work together in instances in the AP case where we came up with the data center tariff, we just reached a settlement with ease.

So there are opportunities to work with the utilities and as well as opportunities work with the commission.

But again, our job is to advocate for consumers and sometimes that conflicts with the other.

My other colleagues who the PCL is the judge and is balancing interest in the utilities is is are representing the shareholders interest.

So we each represent different interests.

But there are times that we can work together for the benefit of all shareholders, consumers, and for the purpose of getting to a correct decision.

there is more to a utility bill than just electricity prices, which utilities don't set.

But they do set costs for transmission and distribution, pending approval by the Peugeot.

The Ohio Consumers Council has advocated for stronger oversight of transmission costs, which the state's monthly utility rate survey shows are between 6% and 21% of the bills for Ohio's six major utilities.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the state House News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

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Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

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Porter Wright.

inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org