Ohio ratepayer advocate urges FERC to resolve 3-year-old local transmission complaint

Ohio's consumer watchdog, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, is pushing federal regulators to act on a complaint it filed three years ago over how local power-line projects get approved in the state. The complaint targets utilities owned by American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, AES and Duke Energy, arguing that their smaller "local" and "supplemental" transmission projects — often built to replace aging equipment or connect new customers, including large data centers — get almost no independent review of whether they're needed or reasonably priced. Since the complaint was filed in 2023, those utilities have added more than $4.3 billion worth of such projects to the regional grid operator's plans, according to the consumer counsel.

This matters to homeowners because transmission costs get passed through to electric bills. If projects move forward without scrutiny on cost or necessity, ratepayers can end up covering expenses that a closer review might have questioned or reduced. The Ohio utilities and grid operator PJM disagree, saying existing oversight — including PJM's planning process, state siting board reviews for larger projects, and other regulatory checks — is already adequate.

The dispute is now with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has yet to rule on the original 2023 complaint. There's no specific timeline for a decision, and no immediate change to bills or service. Ohio homeowners curious about how transmission costs affect their utility rates can look up rate cases or filings through the Ohio Consumers' Counsel for updates on how this plays out.