Energy

It was all smiles at the OMA’s May Energy Committee last week, as members celebrated a key win for manufacturers in energy policy.

House Bill 15, which was signed by Governor Mike DeWine last week, repealed the subsidies for uneconomical power plants in southern Ohio and Indiana, a repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

The committee also heard a presentation on rising capacity prices and what manufacturers can do to manage their power bills. Additionally, the committee welcomed special guest State Senator Mark Romanchuk, who emphasized that OMA’s advocacy was critical in the passage of HB 15. 5/22/2025

Ohio’s utility regulatory agency, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), made headlines this week following their advocacy to remove a breakout session at a national conference that was set to be focused on corruption within an agency.

The National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys had planned to hold a breakout session during its annual meeting titled Lessons from Ohio: What should a staff attorney do if you think the chairman may be a crook?, alluding to former PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo, who had been awaiting federal and state trials on a variety of corruption-related charges.

After receiving pressure from the general counsel of the PUCO to cancel the session, the panel discussion went ahead under a different title focusing on character and ethics. 5/25/2025

OMA’s Energy Engineer, John Seryak of Go Sustainable Energy, provided expert testimony before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), urging the agency to hold FirstEnergy accountable for its role in the House Bill 6 bribery scandal and asking them to require FirstEnergy to credit $769 million back to Ohio customers, given that those funds were illegally obtained. 5/23/25

This week, the OMA provided testimony to the House Energy Committee in opposition to House Bill 142. The bill contains numerous proposed changes to the ratemaking process that would undermine consumer protections and harm the affordability and fairness of energy rates for customers.

The bill would allow gas utilities to project future costs and revenues, which can result in consumers paying higher rates based on speculative estimates rather than actual data. Additionally, it allows utilities to collect money from customers for riders on a projected basis, regardless of whether those funds are actually used. The OMA expressed concern with these provisions, as well as others contained in the pending legislation. 5/21/2025

Weeks after passage of the priority energy reform bill to attract more competitive generation, Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman has turned his attention to Ohio’s grid operator, PJM Interconnection (PJM), which serves 13 states and Washington, D.C.

Huffman expressed frustration with the length of time PJM takes to approve new power plants and has suggested another regional transmission organization, Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), might be a better option for Ohio to consider joining. While the OMA has shared concerns with PJM’s delay of capacity auctions to procure new power generation as well as implementing costly rule changes, the MISO system is composed of more vertically integrated utilities that have monopoly ownership over electric generation as compared to PJM, which may pose challenges to Ohio’s competitive generation market. 5/13/2025

This week, Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 15, an extensive energy bill, into law.

House Bill 15, which was passed nearly unanimously across both chambers, contains an immediate repeal of the OVEC subsidies that were the core of the notorious House Bill 6 scandal that ended with then Speaker of the House Larry Householder indicted and sentenced to prison.

The OMA celebrated the signing in a statement, highlighting that the bill will allow Ohio’s energy system to pull ahead and attract new generation, bringing with it, new economic investments.

Other key provisions of House Bill 15 include the repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” that customers are presently forced to pay and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

In an op-ed published this week, OMA President Ryan Augsburger highlighted this bill as a welcome turning point in Ohio’s energy policy, emphasizing the opportunity Ohio now has to become a national leader in attracting generation and economic investment.

House Bill 15 will become law 90 days after DeWine’s signature. 5/13/2025

Regional grid operator PJM has procured more than enough electric generation capacity to meet peak power needs this summer, plus a healthy reserve margin.

Last year PJM raised its generation reserve margin considerably – from about 15% to about an 18% safety cushion over peak needs – and met it. PJM also increased its load forecast for even more safety margin, discounted generation contributions from coal, solar, gas, nuclear, and wind resources – creating yet even more safety margin – and also is raising regional electric bills by $12 billion per year starting this summer to attract new generation amidst other reforms. However, PJM’s staid description of the expensive cushioning and forthcoming rule changes to increase electric generation, that it has “adequate resources available for summer,” is still receiving hyperbolic treatment in the press, creating impressions of an imminent grid crisis.

The facts: PJM is richly paying electric generators to meet the region’s peak electric needs, even in extreme cases, and with plentiful cushion. The rich payments will hit all Ohio manufacturer electric bills starting this summer. Read more from OMA energy engineering consultants Runnerstone. 5/12/2025

This week, NRG Energy Inc. announced that it will acquire a $12 billion portfolio from LS Power, doubling its generation capacity with 18 natural gas facilities and adding a leading commercial and industrial virtual power plant (C&I VPP) platform, including one in Troy, Ohio.

The deal, expected to close in early 2026, expands NRG’s footprint in the Northeast and Texas and is immediately accretive to earnings. NRG plans to return $9.1 billion to shareholders over five years. The acquisition supports growing energy demand—especially from data centers—and boosts NRG’s credit profile. LS Power retains about 10 GW in generation and transmission assets while gaining an 11% equity stake in NRG. 5/12/2025

This week, appeals court judges upheld the convictions of former House Speaker Larry Householder for his role in the bribery scheme to pass House Bill 6, which included $1 billion for two nuclear plants.

The judges found that there was enough evidence for the jury to conclude that Householder solicited and received millions of dollars from FirstEnergy in return for passing the bailout legislation. Householder will continue to serve his 20-year federal prison sentence. 5/6/2025

PJM opened a one-time process for new generation to skip its long interconnection queue and come online faster, called the Reliability Resource Initiative. The initiative chose 51 shovel-ready projects to be placed in front of the interconnection queue, totaling 11.8 GW of additional generation.

Of the selected projects, 69% are natural gas, 19% are battery energy storage, 12% are nuclear, and 0.1% are coal. 90% of projects are expected to come online by 2030, with the remaining 10% to come online by 2031. Although the application guidance indicated that any resource was eligible to apply, it is clear that there was a heavy bias towards thermal resources. In Ohio, nine projects were approved. All of Ohio’s approved projects are natural gas power plants, seven of them being expansions of already existing plants and two being new natural gas power plants in Lucas and Carroll counties. PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative is one of several reforms PJM is instituting to interconnect more electricity generation. 5/8/2025

The Ohio Legislature this week passed House Bill 15, a landmark energy bill focused on repealing provisions of House Bill 6, repeal of above-market charges, and increased utility transparency.

The OMA praised HB 15 in a statement on Wednesday, calling it the “foundation” for Ohio’s energy future.

House Bill 15, which was passed near unanimously across both chambers, contains an immediate repeal of the OVEC subsidies that were the core of the notorious House Bill 6 scandal that ended with then Speaker of the House Larry Householder indicted and sentenced to prison.

Other key provisions of House Bill 15 include the repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” that customers are presently forced to pay and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

The bill now heads to Governor DeWine’s desk. The Governor is expected to sign the bill into law by the end of May. 4/30/2025

Last week, the OMA and the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) sent a letter to Senate President Rob McColley voicing concerns over a proposal in the state budget that would subsidize certain biofuels over others.

Under the proposal, fueling stations across Ohio could receive up to $100,000 in state-funded rebates for selling a15 percent ethanol blend (E15), significantly tipping the playing field in favor of E15 over other fuels.

The state budget is still being deliberated by the legislature, with lawmakers having a June 30 deadline to get the budget to DeWine for his signature. 4/30/2025

The landmark energy bill for Ohio’s General Assembly is set to be passed next week, according to Speaker of the House Matt Huffman (R-Lima).

House Bill 15 contains an immediate repeal of the OVEC subsidies that were the core of the notorious House Bill 6 scandal that ended with then Speaker of the House Larry Householder indicted and sentenced to prison.

Other key provisions of House Bill 15 include the repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” that customers are presently forced to pay, and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

The Ohio Senate and House must concur on changes to the bill before sending it to Governor DeWine, who has signaled that he will sign it into law. 4/24/2025

Grid operator PJM Interconnection (PJM) announced this week that its president and CEO, Manu Asthana, has decided to step down from his role with PJM at the end of 2025. The PJM Board has formed a CEO Search Committee and has engaged Korn Ferry to assist with the search. The PJM Board intends to solicit input from PJM members and stakeholders as part of its search process, which is targeted to conclude later this year.

The announcement comes amid frustration over spiking capacity charges set to hit customers bills in June. The OMA has critiqued PJM’s delays to its capacity auction to procure new power generation, as timely auctions are critical to procure new plants to replace retiring power plants. The auction delays combined with questionable capacity market changes by PJM and PJM’s backlogged interconnection queue for new generation, rated among the nation’s worst, have all contributed to the increases. 4/15/2025

AEP subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power, a regulated distribution and generation electric monopoly in Indiana and Michigan, has requested approval from Indiana electric regulators to purchase and own a competitive natural-gas-fired power plant in Ohio, the 870-megawatt Oregon Clean Energy Center. The request would remove this competitive power generation from the regional electricity market and put it into AEP’s Indiana monopoly supply. The move is likely unnecessary – Indiana Michigan Power can purchase additional power supply on PJM’s competitive markets if it needs to. It also appears to counter narratives from utilities of an imminent power shortage in Ohio. The shortage claim was previously called into question with another AEP announcement to ship power to the east coast.

AEP’s announcement to monopolize competitive Ohio power generation with their Indiana utility comes at a sensitive time – Ohio’s state House and Senate recently voted a combined 122-3 to affirm the state’s commitment to energy markets while rescinding Ohio ratepayer subsidization of an AEP-owned coal plant in Indiana that has cost Ohioans hundreds of millions of dollars. 4/16/2025

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s criminal case against former House Speaker Larry Householder has been rescheduled from April 28 to November 3. Householder has been accused of illegally using campaign funds to defend himself in a March 2023 federal trial. He has been charged with aggravated theft, theft in office, money laundering, and tampering with records. His attorneys are set to argue for the case’s dismissal on August 20.

Householder is already serving a 20-year prison sentence on federal charges related to the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.

Meanwhile, in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Attorney General Yost has filed a formal request to compel four former FirstEnergy Corp. executives to cooperate with an ongoing investigation by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. This marks the first time in nearly 40 years that Ohio’s attorney general is using a law to force witnesses to testify before energy regulators in exchange for criminal immunity. 4/16/2025

The Supreme Court of Ohio recently heard arguments regarding the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s (PUCO) offset of AES Ohio’s significantly excessive earnings test (SEET) for 2018 and 2019, which otherwise would have produced tens of millions of dollars in refunds to the utility’s customers. A SEET is a process where the PUCO evaluates the earnings of investor-owned electric utilities to determine if their earnings are significantly excessive, and if so, requires them to return the excess to consumers.

The question before the court is whether the PUCO could consider the utility’s future committed investments to offset required consumer refunds. In their questioning, many of the Supreme Court justices appeared to agree that the capital requirements of future committed investments are part of a holistic accounting of SEET but should not be subtracted from apparent refunds. The Court is expected to issue a final decision in four to six months. 4/16/2025

A two-part documentary, The Dark Money Game, will premiere on HBO on April 15 at 9:00 p.m., covering the House Bill 6 scandal and the role of dark money in politics.

The portion focusing on House Bill 6, titled Ohio Confidential, will feature retired FBI agents along with former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers and others involved in the uncovering of the bribery scheme that resulted in former Speaker Larry Householder being sent to prison for 20 years. 4/8/2025

Microsoft has confirmed that it will no longer move forward with its immediate plans to build data centers in Licking County. It had previously planned to invest $1 billion toward three data center campuses in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron. Microsoft will continue to own the land and plans to ensure that two of the three sites can be used for farming. Additionally, Microsoft will carry out development agreements to fund roadway and utility project upgrades.

Microsoft’s decision to pull out of these projects comes amid a controversial proposed data center tariff from AEP Ohio that is pending at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. OMA Energy Group has intervened to oppose this discriminatory tariff as it is discriminatory and anti-competitive. 4/8/2025

While the House and Senate continue to negotiate provisions of House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 2 behind the scenes, the Senate held a hearing on House Bill 15 this week. Both bills promote competitive generation in Ohio and repeal costly subsidies on customers’ electricity bills.

The OMA testified in favor of HB 15 to express support for immediate repeal of costly subsidies currently paid to two unneeded and uneconomic coal plants, in addition to provisions added to require transparency and accountability from electric utilities. It is expected that Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 15 will be reconciled soon, and one of the bills will be passed by the end of April. Manufacturers are encouraged to continue urging their legislators to vote yes. 3/4/2025