03/24/2026
AEP Ohio Customers to Face Higher Electric Bills Starting April 1 Amid Rate Adjustment Approval
Source: WBNS 10TV, March 18, 2026
AEP Ohio customers will see higher electric bills beginning April 1 after regulators approved a rate adjustment.
The average residential bill will increase by about $7.90 per month, though the exact impact will vary depending on electricity usage.
The increase is tied to a PUCO-approved rider, which allows utilities to recover certain transmission-related costs. While broader demand trends — including growth from large energy users like data centers — are part of long-term planning discussions, filings with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio typically base these adjustments on specific cost-recovery mechanisms rather than generalized “market forces.”
According to regulatory filings, one component of the rate will rise by approximately 0.79 cents per kilowatt-hour, increasing from about 3.6 cents to 4.3 cents. This reflects a portion of the overall bill rather than the total price customers pay for electricity.
Commercial and industrial customers will also see higher costs under the updated rates.
“AEP utilities have generally used their own data center rate plan to inflate future power demand having increased forecasts by about 40% per data center. Our review reveals that AEP utilities likely have counted data center projects multiple times. Additionally, AEP utility forecasts appear to fail to take into account behind the meter power generation that the capacity market will not need to supply. But it’s not just data centers, AEP utilities have over-forecast small business user demand at times,” said Ryan Augsburger, president of the OMA.
AEP Ohio disputes those claims, saying its forecasting methods are consistent with past practice and have not been challenged by PUCO staff. The company also defends its data center-specific tariff, arguing it protects other customers from bearing the cost of new infrastructure needed to serve large-scale energy users.
“AEP Ohio has used the same approach since the Basic Transmission Cost Rider first began more than 10 years ago; in this case, the PUCO staff report uses a forecast based on a three-year trend analysis. Nothing in their report indicates that they’re challenging our load forecast in any way, as OMA suggests. OMA’s members should question why their organization is fighting AEP Ohio’s Data Center Tariff, which protects manufacturers across Ohio from shouldering millions of dollars of costs associated with electric transmission infrastructure buildout to serve data centers," the company said.
OMA has appealed PUCO’s approval of that tariff to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing it results in unfair pricing for manufacturers.
AEP Ohio sent 10TV a statement, reading in part:
"While PUCO staff made several recommendations, only one affects the rates that will become effective with the first billing cycle of April 2026, and it applies solely to non-residential customers.
"Importantly, PUCO staff did not recommend disallowing any costs incurred prudently by AEP Ohio. Instead, they suggested a modification to the rate design, not a change to how costs are allocated to different categories of customers (e.g., residential, commercial and industrial). This represents a shift from how BTCR rates have been designed since the mechanism began in 2015.
"To avoid confusion, it is important to emphasize that the PUCO staff’s recommendation does not impact residential customers. However, residential customers will experience an increase beginning with the April billing cycle due to the standard annual update to transmission rates under the FERC- and PUCO-approved formula."
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