Montgomery Co. Cold-Storage Facility Electricity: Multi-Site

Cold Storage · Montgomery County, Ohio

Updated October 15, 2026Ohio Commercial Energy editorial teamHow we review content Book a free 15-min bill review

Market-reference note: Numerical default-price examples below retain their cited 2026 reference period. They are historical class-level context, not a current account quote. Confirm the applicable business rate, components and effective dates on your bill before comparing an offer. How to establish your benchmark.

Yes, with one caveat: Montgomery County is served by two investor-owned utilities (AES Ohio and Duke Energy Ohio), and suppliers price each utility territory separately. A single master agreement can still cover every site, with a price column per utility.

Rural sites served by an electric cooperative — Butler Rural Electric Cooperative and Pioneer Electric Cooperative — are in the same position.

Portfolio math for cold-storage facilities in Montgomery County

Take an illustrative operator with three smaller and two mid-size locations (50,000 ft² and 150,000 ft²):

Portfolio measure	Estimate
Combined annual use	13.30 million kWh
Combined capacity tags	about 2,064 kW
Capacity cost at 2026/27 price ($329.17/MW-day)	about $247,936 a year
Illustrative tags at the 2024/25 RTO reference ($28.92/MW-day)	about $21,783 a year
Value of each 0.5¢/kWh in supply price	about $66,600 a year

How these numbers are built: annual use = 29.6 kWh/ft² (EIA CBECS 2018 Table C22, refrigerated warehouse (mean; small sample of ~3,000 buildings nationally)). Peak demand assumes a 70% load factor; the capacity tag assumes 95% of that peak falls in the grid's summer peak hours. Capacity cost uses PJM's 2026/27 clearing price of $329.17/MW-day (about $120 per kW-year) before utility scaling factors. These are illustrations for sizing a decision — your own bills and interval data are what suppliers price.

At that combined size the operator is a meaningful account for suppliers, even if each location on its own is below Ohio's 700,000 kWh-a-year “mercantile” line. Each account's aggregation eligibility is still judged site by site.

Utilities and default prices across Montgomery County

Utility	Small-business default generation price	Cities on this site in the county
AES Ohio	Varies by rate schedule (on your bill)	Centerville, Dayton, Huber Heights, Kettering, Riverside, Trotwood
Duke Energy Ohio	Historical class reference: 11.36¢/kWh (effective June 1, 2026)	—

Structuring a multi-site contract

Master agreement with site schedules. Sign one agreement and list each location on a schedule, so opening or closing a cold-storage facility is an amendment, not a new negotiation.
Add/delete rights. Ask for the right to add new locations at the contract price (or a formula) and to remove closed locations without penalty up to a set share of volume.
Aggregate bandwidth. Measure usage tolerance across the whole portfolio rather than meter by meter, so one busy site doesn't trigger true-up charges.
Co-terminous end dates. Put every site on the same end date so the next bid covers the full portfolio.
Aggregation exits. Locations at 700,000 kWh a year or less may be in a community aggregation program; confirm how each will be moved to the new supplier and whether any exit terms apply.

Operating issues specific to cold-storage facilities

Refrigeration runs continuously, so load factor is high and summer afternoons add compressor load exactly when grid capacity is most expensive.

Across a portfolio, the biggest wins usually come from standardizing settings and comparing sites against each other. For cold-storage facilities, that means:

Pre-cool (“load shift”) product and space before summer peak hours; California requires funded projects to shift at least 20% of peak kW.
Maintain dock seals, rapid-roll doors and air curtains.
Add variable-frequency drives on evaporator fans and condensers.

At 2026–2029 capacity prices, each kilowatt of capacity tag costs roughly $120 a year, so the ability to ride through peak hours on thermal mass is worth real money.

FAQ

Can a cold-storage facility operator buy electricity for all Montgomery County locations together?

Yes. A supplier can put every shoppable site under one agreement; expect separate prices for AES Ohio and Duke Energy Ohio accounts.

Which Montgomery County locations can't be included?

Sites served by electric cooperatives (Butler Rural Electric Cooperative and Pioneer Electric Cooperative) generally can't be enrolled with a retail supplier.

What contract fits a cold-storage facility?

Usually a fixed or block-and-index product priced on interval data; the flat load gets favorable pricing.

Decision worksheet: Montgomery County cold-storage facility operations

Price current operations and planned changes separately

Dayton-area growth, building works or altered hours can make historical bills a poor representation of the next term. Identify which changes are committed and which are only possibilities. Obtain a documented supplier response to the changed load rather than silently extending last year’s model.

For a cold-storage facility in this market, the useful starting evidence is temperature-critical refrigeration separately from door-opening and defrost peaks. This is a review question, not an assumption that every local facility has the same equipment or schedule. Record what your site actually does, then explain the difference between the historical bill period and the proposed contract term.

Delivery-utility guide for Montgomery County	Evidence needed before pricing
AES Ohio	Confirm the actual account class and contract; service territory is not the same as a county boundary.
Duke Energy Ohio	Confirm the actual account class and contract; service territory is not the same as a county boundary.

The local guide is a starting map, not an address-level enrollment determination. Keep utility bills and account identifiers in the private document package, not the initial website inquiry. The Ohio bill guide explains how to identify the delivery and supply companies.

A cold-storage facility review should test these operating questions

Load separation: identify refrigeration compressors, fans and defrost cycles. Distinguish electricity use from gas, water and other operating costs before comparing a retail electric offer.
Change case: document new temperature zones, product throughput or refrigeration controls. Ask the supplier whether that change affects quoted volume, capacity treatment, demand assumptions or the offer’s validity.
Comparable performance: track kWh per stored-volume-day with temperature setpoints recorded. A raw dollar-per-month comparison mixes prices and operations; a unit measure needs the operating context beside it.
Account responsibility: Which load changes are safe for product quality and which are prohibited? Record the responsible party and who can authorize a contract before asking someone to sign.
Contract fit: Does the supply offer pass capacity changes through to the operator? Ask for the answer in the actual agreement or written offer schedule, rather than relying on a sales summary.

Evidence table for the next decision

Question for this cold-storage facility	Bring this evidence	What a useful answer looks like
Has the bill risen because of price or operations?	Same-period kWh, peak kW where billed, hours and production/occupancy records	A separation of rate, volume and demand effects; no automatic savings claim
Will the next term resemble the last twelve months?	The planned new temperature zones, product throughput or refrigeration controls	A base case and a change case, with supplier tolerances shown
Are supply offers priced on equal terms?	Start dates, included components, additional fees and offer expiry	One comparison matrix that identifies every excluded or adjustable item
Is the site free to enroll when proposed?	Current agreement, renewal notice and actual utility confirmation	A documented timeline that avoids an unintended rollover or early-exit charge

Portfolio review across Montgomery County

Use a separate row for every property rather than one total for the whole business. Start with Centerville, Dayton, Huber Heights, Kettering, Riverside, Trotwood. A common owner can negotiate a master agreement, but meters still have their own rate classes, delivery utilities, start dates and operational constraints. Do not assume that pooling bills creates a volume discount or makes a municipal meter eligible.

For cold-storage facilities, preserve kWh per stored-volume-day with temperature setpoints recorded at site level before rolling it into a portfolio dashboard. Otherwise a busy or continuously operating location can hide the cost of an idle one. Align contract end dates only after identifying any early-exit costs, add/delete rights and ownership-transfer provisions.

Turn this into a review request

Use the private comparison and renewal tools for a first pass. They do not submit your figures. If you want help, choose “Offer comparison” or “Renewal planner” on the Ohio inquiry form, identify Montgomery County, and describe the question without account numbers or attachments. A supplier bid follows only if the account and decision support that step.

Primary reference points: PUCO electric-bill definitions, Ohio customer classifications and customer-choice guidance. Operating prompts above are planning guidance, not measured local savings or a claim about a specific customer.