Members of Toledo City Council are preparing for proposed energy rate increases from Toledo Edison and looking at ways they can help residents with relief.
In May, FirstEnergy Corp. filed an application to increase electric distribution rates with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Although the application has been submitted, before the request can be approved, the utilities commission will release a staff report, listen to testimony from interest groups, and host public hearings before issuing an opinion.
On Wednesday, the Ohio Office of Consumers’ Counsel, one of those interest groups, made a presentation to city council members on the finance, debt, and budget oversight committee and the mobility sustainability committee about the proposed increases. The OCC estimates that the rate increase will cost customers $190 million.
“We encourage people to tell their friends, tell their neighbors, inform others about the proposed increase because it really affects everyone,” said Angela O’Brien, the deputy consumers’ counsel and legal director.
The consumers’ counsel advocates for the state’s residential utility consumers through representation and education.
Toledo Edison customers are expected to have the smallest rate increase, compared to Ohio Edison or the Cleveland Illuminating Co., however, Councilman George Sarantou, chairman of council’s finance, debt, and budget oversight committee, pointed out that Toledo Edison has typically had higher rates than the other distribution companies. Ms. O’Brien said she believed that is accurate.
“Historically, Toledo Edison customers have been hit with some of the highest rates in Ohio and even across the nation,” he said. “So I think that my own personal view is that any increase is harmful in the long run because we are paying more in Toledo.”
Hannah Catlett, a spokesman for Toledo Edison, said the last time FirstEnergy filed a base rate review was in 2007, and rates took effect in 2009. Ms. Catlett said since the last review, almost 17 years ago, the Ohio companies have invested millions of dollars to modernize its distribution system.
The investments have helped reduce the size and length of power outages and funds technology that can sense an outage and automatically transfer customers to an adjacent power line to limit those who experience outages, she said.
“By carefully managing costs and planning ahead, we’ve been able to present proposed rates in this case that are reasonable and affordable for our customers,” Ms. Catlett wrote in an email. “If approved by the PUCO, a typical ... Toledo Edison residential customer using 750 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month on average could expect to see an increase of $1.09 or 0.8 percent, on their monthly bill.”
The consumers’ counsel predicts the cost will be a little higher at $1.56, which means if a customer currently pays $171.74 a month, their increased bill would be $173.30 a month.
The proposed rate increase comes after the public utilities commission authorized an electric security plan for FirstEnergy, which requires the company to contribute $32.5 million to fund low-income customer bill assistance programs, offer bill assistance for income-eligible senior citizens, and to develop an electric vehicle education program to assist customers’ transitions to EVs.
Ms. O’Brien said the plan also allows them to charge customers about $840 million over five years.
The electric security plan went into effect June 1, but FirstEnergy has since withdrawn its current electric security plan to revert to its previous plan. Ms. O’Brien said that the company is still evaluating the potential cost impacts to consumers that would result if FirstEnergy’s new request to revert back to the previous plan is granted.
FirstEnergy says returning to the previous plan will save customers money.
The Toledo City Council previously passed a resolution opposing the electric security plan, and Mr. Sarantou said after Wednesday’s meeting that the council could discuss another resolution as the application moves along in the process.
“Our citizens have been hit with rate increases over many years, and we just don’t need any more,” Mr. Sarantou said. “... This just surfaced. The Ohio Consumers’ Council reached out to us and wanted to come up here and testify, so we welcome that, and absolutely there will be a resolution. We’re just waiting for some final information, but yeah, we will do another resolution.”
Councilman Nick Komives, chairman of the mobility and sustainability committee, asked Ms. O’Brien the role House Bill 6 — the nuclear plant bailout law that became the center of a $61 million bribery scandal — has played in the proposed increased rates. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was convicted of leading the bribery scheme with FirstEnergy to pass the bill.
“I’m not sure the extent to which House Bill 6 actually impacted the application for base distribution rates, aside from the fact that, as part of the scandal, one of the issues was that FirstEnergy was supposed to come in for rate review in 2024, and then as part of the scandal, that requirement was removed by the PUCO,” Ms. O’Brien said. “Obviously, First Energy has now filed their rate case.”
Ms. Catlett said the increased rate considers investments in the energy distribution system, storm restoration work, and a bill assistance initiative for customers, but Mr. Sarantou said work at the local level is just beginning.
“We started today by having a public hearing and getting the message out that it’s outrageous that FirstEnergy is asking for $190 million of rate increases when they just got an $840 million increase in the past year approved by the Public Utilities Commission,” Mr. Sarantou said. “In particular, this is outrageous because they paid a $60 million bribe to Speaker Householder and others, and it’s outrageous that we have to pay for this.”
Toledo will have a public hearing organized by the PUCO at a date that has yet to be announced.
First Published December 11, 2024, 9:16 p.m.
