Energy

Global Infrastructure Partners, backed by BlackRock, is in advanced talks to acquire AES Corporation in a deal potentially exceeding $40 billion. AES has rapidly expanded its renewable energy portfolio amid reported rising U.S. power demand—driven by AI and data center growth.

For Ohio manufacturers, this signals a shift toward cleaner, more robust energy infrastructure. The outcome could impact energy costs and supply stability, key factors for industrial competitiveness. AES operates the electric utility system formerly known as Dayton Power & Light (DPL). Read more. 10/9/2025

Data center development has been raising concerns for future grid costs and reliability due to their large electricity needs. In a Climate Week NYC interview, Energy Secretary Chris Wright suggested that data center developers should provide their own electricity if there is not enough available in their grid area. This could be accomplished with behind-the-meter generation, where facilities build generation assets on or near their site and only connect them to their facility, and not the grid. Customers building their own on-site power for their sole use is being referred to as ‘bring your own generation’ (BYOG).

Customer-owned and sited generation has existed for decades, especially at larger manufacturing facilities. The OMA played an instrumental role in advancing state legislation to incent the development of behind the meter generation. 10/9/2025

Electric utilities across the country are forecasting significant increases in demand due to new large loads such as data centers and advanced manufacturing. The OMA has raised concerns about the accuracy of these forecasts, however, and warned that inflated forecasts are driving up customer bills without delivering new generation. Earlier this month, the OMA asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to open an investigation into AEP Ohio’s load forecasts to verify their accuracy and methodology.

Regional transmission operators (RTOs) including PJM are responsible for verifying the accuracy forecasts for planning purposes and to set market demand. Recently, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Rosner wrote a letter to the RTOs addressing concerns of load forecast inflation. He states in his letter that, “improving forecasts by even a few percentage points in the right direction … can impact billions of dollars in investments and customer bills.” His letter reflects the concerns of the Electricity Customer Alliance’s letter that was sent to FERC earlier this year, as well as the OMA. 10/2/2025

This week, the OMA testified in opposition to Substitute Senate Bill 103, currently under review by the Senate Public Utilities Committee. While the substitute bill reflects improvements over earlier versions, the OMA continues to raise serious concerns. SB 103 extends certain provisions from House Bill 15 to natural gas, water and sewer utilities — including the use of forecasted test years. However, unlike HB 15, the bill does not completely eliminate above-market charges or outdated subsidies.

As currently drafted, Sub. SB 103 would allow gas, water and sewer utilities to benefit from forward-looking rate-setting mechanisms while continuing to collect revenue through capital investment riders. In essence, the natural gas and water companies will get to “double dip” under the new Sub. SB 103, receiving revenue through both expedited rate cases that are forecasted and capital investment riders that are also forecasted. 10/2/2025

At the recent Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference, panelists debated the effectiveness of the state of Ohio’s ability to police against corruption and undue utility influence in the wake of the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.

Panelist Ashley Brown depicted how global anti-corruption scholars regard Ohio’s PUCO as “a complete failure in regulation.” Brown, a former PUCO commissioner himself, and faculty member at Harvard’s Electricity Policy Group, also detailed FirstEnergy’s Distribution Modernization Rider order in which then-chief regulator Asim Haque knowingly approved improper customer payments for the Akron-based company to pad profits.

OMA energy counsel Kim Bojko described how the PUCO’s blind acceptance of utility load forecasts is an ongoing example of continued problems with the agency. Tim Ling of OMA member company Plaskolite humorously likened the PUCO to “fight club.” Read more courtesy of the Hannah Report. 10/2/2025

Appearing at the OMA’s Manufacturers’ Energy Conference weeks ago in Westerville, Kent Chandler, the former chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, presented data questioning reported electric load growth forecasts. His slides illustrated past inflation of forecasts compared to actual demand. Chandler, a senior fellow with the R Street Institute, described the incentives for utilities to inflate load forecasts.

In a defense of competitive generation markets, Chandler also shared data on the significant customer costs Georgians will pay for the most recent nuclear power generating station and cited other examples as a warning of how regulated companies have hoisted costs on captive customers. 10/2/2025

President Donald Trump’s recent call to shift from quarterly to semiannual corporate reporting has drawn cautious support from global investors focused on long-term sustainability. Reuters reports that President Trump’s call to shift back from quarterly to semiannual reporting encourages short-termism, a view echoed by business leaders such as Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon.

Surprisingly, some sustainability-focused investors—often at odds with Trump’s policies—agree. They believe less frequent reporting could help companies focus more on long-term strategy and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, provided transparency is maintained. Critics, however, warn that safeguards would be needed to protect investor interests and ensure timely disclosures. 9/25/2025

On Sept. 22, a bipartisan conference was held with PJM state governors and PJM leadership to discuss the future of states’ involvement with the regional transmission operator (RTO). Most governors expressed frustration with PJM over rising capacity prices since July 2024 and are advocated for increased state representation. Seven governors wrote a letter addressing these issues. It was announced that 11 states, including Ohio, plan to form a “governors’ collaborative” to work on PJM issues. State governors called for PJM to give states the right to file PJM-related requests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as well as a bigger role in selecting PJM’s board members.

Not everyone agrees with increasing states’ involvement with PJM’s processes. The President and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association published a press release urging states to focus on issues such as streamlining permitting and easing regulations on power producers. PJM’s CEO, Manu Asthana, said PJM remains open to discussions with state governors but noted any changes to the RTO’s operations would require action through either PJM’s Members Committee approval or by filing a complaint with FERC. 9/25/2025

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published a column by the OMA’s Ryan Augsburger highlighting accountability problems with our power system and its regulators, all of which are fueling the recent spike in electricity bills. The OMA has long contended that competitive markets will respond to demand for generation better than government fiat. Recent efforts by utilities and our grid operator are designed to undermine competition.

“2019’s House Bill 6—the corruption scandal that forced Ohioans to pay for inefficient coal power plants, including one in Indiana—is proof of what happens when these interests succeed. Some of the same players are again pushing public subsidies and re-regulation, using manufactured demand spikes and reliability fears to justify utility company gains at the public’s expense,” lamented the OMA president. 9/16/2025

This week, the OMA filed a motion with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to open an investigation into American Electric Power’s (AEP) load forecast. The OMA has reason to believe load forecasts are inflated, causing customers to pay more without offsetting benefits.

The matter will be discussed at the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference this week. Manufacturers concerned about rising electricity rates are encouraged to be active in the OMA Energy Group. Contact staff to learn more. 9/17/2025

The OMA issued its latest edition of RetoolingOhio, this time level-setting the regulatory environment governing how power prices are set. While much has occurred in Ohio to favorably address customer power bills, much remains to be done in the regional market. Grid operator PJM has allowed utilities to drive up customer power costs without offsetting benefits. It needs to be held to account.

At the same time, state regulators at the PUCO have an opportunity to protect customers through prudent regulation. All of these topics were addressed at the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference yesterday. “To strengthen Ohio’s economy, we need to continue to choose competitive energy policies. Beware of entrenched interests and their friends,” said OMA president Ryan Augsburger at the conference. See next week’s edition of OMA’s Leadership Briefing for conference coverage. 9/17/2025

Last week, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) upheld its decision to allow discriminatory pricing treatment of energy-intensive customers via the creation of a data center-specific tariff. The OMA Energy Group had opposed this tariff, arguing that it creates a precedent that could punish industrial and other high-energy users, such as manufacturers, in the future.

Of particular concern, the decision lacks evidentiary support, as the rationale for the tariff is based upon overstated speculative load forecasts by AEP.

The OMA Energy Group will be appealing this decision to the Ohio Supreme Court. 9/10/2025

Township trustees in Jerome Township, northwest of Columbus, recently voted unanimously to place a moratorium on the “receipt, processing, issuance or approval of any application for a zoning certificate” for data centers. The moratorium is believed to be one of the first in Ohio, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Vilification of data centers is increasing. In the last month, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved a utility proposal enabling discrimination against the cutting-edge businesses by imposing unreasonable additional charges and commitments on data center businesses.

The purported evidence of data center utility usage or constraints on the grid do not substantiate the enmity directed at data centers. Subject matter experts will dig into this topic at the upcoming Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference. 9/10/2025

Energy giant American Electric Power (AEP) has signaled it may exit its downtown Columbus corporate headquarters. While AEP statements suggest the company could reinvest in the AEP tower or look elsewhere in central Ohio, sources say corporate leaders are shopping Ohio’s elected leaders for an “economic development” package.

AEP’s investor PowerPoint shows on slide 12 how regulated earnings from Ohio and their regulated transmission company are among the corporation’s best-performing assets. 9/3/2025

A new bill was recently introduced in the Ohio House that would give utilities the ability to create voluntary demand response programs for residential and small commercial customers. Large commercial and industrial customers already have access to voluntary demand response programs through competitive business providers.

Demand response is an eligible capacity resource in the PJM capacity auction and can have the effect of lowering the price of electric capacity. However, it is not common for residential and small business customers to enroll with competitive demand response providers, and this resource remains underutilized. The proposed bill would allow utilities to create incentivized programs that would allow small energy users to sign up to agree to reduce their energy usage during high demand hours on the network.

Although this new bill has been cited in the news recently, it has a long way to go before becoming law. The bill has not yet passed the Ohio House or Senate and will have to gain support in both chambers to ultimately pass. If the bill passes, utilities will then need to develop the program for their network area and seek approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio before rolling it out to customers. 9/11/2025

An influential state senator recently penned an editorial making the case for state policies to spur construction of small modular nuclear power plants. Senator Jerry Cirino (R, Lake County) calls for undefined “action” to attract new nuclear power plants.

OMA’s energy engineers at RunnerStone LLC have been following the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) for years, and while they are talked about frequently today, they have not demonstrated economic viability yet and could potentially hamstring customers and/or taxpayers with significant unnecessary costs.

The last time Ohio lawmakers acted to subsidize nuclear power plants, it ended in the House Bill 6 criminal scandal. Attend the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference later this month to find out the rest of the story. Registration closes soon. 9/3/2025

The Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) announced that $8.5 million in grants is now available to support energy efficiency projects for businesses throughout Ohio. Applications for the latest round of the Advanced Energy Fund will be accepted from Sept. 2 through Oct. 31. The application and guidance documents are available on the Advanced Energy Fund Grant website.

Learn more about this and other ODOD programs to support businesses in Ohio from Shaun Sagle, the department’s deputy chief of the Office of Energy and Environment, at the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference on Sept. 18. View the full agenda and register today. 9/3/2025

In a win for customers, the Supreme Court of Ohio recently decided that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) improperly offset future grid modernization investments when analyzing AES Ohio’s significantly excessive earnings test (SEET) for 2018 and 2019 instead of refunding the approximate $61.1 million in excessive earnings to the utility’s customers.

The Court directed the PUCO to conduct a new SEET analysis and order refunds accordingly. 8/27/2025

Last week, the OMA Energy Group initiated the appeals process at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), requesting their reconsideration of an unwise decision allowing for discriminatory ratemaking.

AEP Ohio, a regulated utility required to serve all customers fairly, imposed an unapproved moratorium on new data center developments and proposed a new rate class targeting energy-intensive customers like data centers, which was ultimately approved by the PUCO. The OMA Energy Group opposed this move, arguing that it sets a discriminatory precedent that could harm manufacturers in the future and disrupt Ohio’s competitive energy market. Especially of concern, the PUCO’s rationale for the special tariff is deeply flawed, based on overstated speculative load forecasts by AEP.

The OMA continues to advocate for market-based solutions grounded in competitive markets without unfairly targeting specific industries. Register for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference on September 18 to learn more about the data center tariff. 8/12/2025

PJM this week introduced and is seeking feedback on a preliminary proposal based on increased load forecasts.

The special arrangement, called non-capacity baked load, would be triggered only if generator supply is short of the reserve requirement for the capacity auction. In that case, PJM will ask for volunteers among new large loads over 50 MW to be curtailable, that is, the first thing curtailed on the network, even before demand response. In return, the large load would not have to pay for capacity. If PJM can’t get enough volunteers, it will require a portion of new large loads to be curtailable. It is unclear if this proposal will be able to meet PJM’s intent: speed up the interconnection of large loads and significantly reduce capacity prices. It is also not clear that PJM’s proposal addresses critiques from a coalition of manufacturers and consumer groups that utility load forecasts could be overestimated, are uncertain, and lack transparency. 8/20/2025