AES Ohio customers may see price hike on electricity bill with newly proposed plan

DAYTON — One of Dayton’s major utility provider filed a settlement for their Electric Security Plan that would increase electric rates for consumers once approved, according to some officials.

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AES Ohio filed their settlement with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) that sought to implement a plan for investing in its network to strengthen reliability, protect customers from the volatility of market-based energy prices, and create jobs, the company’s spokesperson said.

“This comprehensive settlement is a major step in our ability to execute on our strategic plan to strengthen our network, ensuring that critical investments are made to benefit customers today and, in the future,” AES Ohio president and CEO Kristina Lund said.

In the submitted Electric Security Plan, the company boasted that their plan would increase support for low-income customers who experience a high percentage of disconnections via economic development, weatherization, and education outreach. The plan was also buttressed by a $150,000 contribution to Gift of Power program through shareholder funds, and an introduction to green energy, according to the spokesperson.

However, opponents to the proposed plan stated that customers would see a rate increase.

“The settlement’s rate increase, if approved by the PUCO, will be a double-whammy for AES’s consumers because last year’s $75 million rate increase will also take effect. The settlement’s rate increase includes controversial coal plant charges making consumers pay corporate welfare to AES. These subsidies for AES relate to two coal plants (one in Indiana) that are partly owned by AES. Utility lobbying later led to subsidy charges related to those coal plants being included in tainted House Bill 6,” Merrilee Embs, spokesperson for Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston, said.

Furthermore, half a million Dayton-area customers would subsidize nearly10-years of costs of two-aging coal plants in Indiana and Ohio.

“Despite Ohio being a deregulated state for power plants, AES (and AEP and Duke) have been enjoying corporate welfare courtesy of Ohioans who are made to pay subsidies for the so-called ‘OVEC’ plants, one in Ohio and one in Indiana,” Embs said.

Governor Mike DeWine also stated that he does not support the similar subsidy in “tainted House Bill 6 for the same coal plants.”

The increase in costs was not made available by the commissioner or AES Ohio. However, the originally filed plan was estimated to increase the average customer’s electricity bill by about $60 a year.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted a former commissioner. The story has been corrected to attribute information to an Ohio Consumers’ Counsel spokesperson.

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