Ohio Bill Charges You Can't Shop: 2025–26 Changes

Ohio market insight · Bills & budgets

Updated September 27, 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.

The short answer

Much of an Ohio business electric bill is set by your utility and PUCO, not by your supplier. That includes distribution rates, transmission riders, other riders, customer charges and the kWh tax. Several of those moved in 2025–2026:

The OVEC "legacy generation" rider ended on August 14, 2025.
AEP Ohio's annual transmission-rider update raised bills again from April 2026.
Rate cases cut net distribution revenue at AEP Ohio and the FirstEnergy utilities. AES Ohio's rose, and Duke's is still pending.

On the supply side, a contract that passes capacity through behaves like a utility rider. It makes the 2026/27 capacity price of $329.17/MW-day just as unavoidable.

This page tracks the charges you can't shop and what changed. For spotting charges that were billed wrong, see bill errors and disputes. For the full cost stack with ¢/kWh math, see cost components. For the statewide rate-case tracker, see the PUCO rate case update.

Which charges you can and can't shop

Charge	Set by	Can a supplier change it?
Energy (generation)	Your supplier, or the utility's default (SSO) price	Yes
Capacity	PJM auction, included in the SSO or in the supplier's price	Yes, unless your contract passes it through
Network transmission	FERC and PJM costs, recovered through a utility rider	No, it's non-bypassable at all four utilities
Distribution base rates	PUCO rate case	No
Distribution riders (grid, storm and other programs)	PUCO	No
Customer or meter charge	Utility tariff	No
kWh excise tax	State law (no sales tax applies)	No

What changed, 2025–2026

Item	What happened	What it means for your bill
OVEC "legacy generation" rider	Ended August 14, 2025 under HB 15. Ohio utility customers had paid over $683 million toward two 1950s-era coal plants since 2013.	That line should be gone from investor-owned utility bills since late summer 2025. Co-op members still carry these plants' costs through their power supplier.
AEP Ohio transmission rider (BTCR)	PUCO approved the annual update, effective April 2026. For an average residential customer the increase was about $7.90 a month.	Business impact depends on your rate schedule. Expect an update each year.
AEP Ohio distribution case	Order of April 1, 2026: base distribution +$11 million (AEP had asked for $97 million), plus a ~$105 million tax refund over 18 months, for a net ~$58.7 million annual revenue decrease. A new three-part bill format starts in fall 2026.	Part of the decrease is a temporary refund, so budget for it to end after its 18 months.
FirstEnergy (Ohio Edison, CEI, Toledo Edison)	November 19, 2025 order cut a ~$190 million request to ~$34 million. After rehearing on February 18, 2026, the net result is a ~$39.4 million annual reduction from March 1, 2026. A three-year plan for 2027–2029 was filed in May 2026.	CEI customers saw increases while Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison customers saw decreases. 2027–2029 rates are pending.
AES Ohio	November 2025 settlement: about +$168 million a year in base distribution. A three-year plan filed July 21, 2026 proposes about 1% a year.	A higher delivery baseline, then smaller steps
Duke Energy Ohio	Rate case filed March 2026 (Case 26-0132-EL-AIR) seeking about 3% for non-residential customers, expected around May 2027	Budget a delivery increase from mid-2027
Default (SSO) prices	Reset June 1, 2026. Small-business general service rose to about 9.38¢ (Ohio Edison), 9.45¢ (CEI) and 9.43¢ (Toledo Edison), and Duke's Rate DM first block to about 11.36¢.	These are shoppable, but they're the benchmark any contract has to beat

Transmission riders in more detail

All four Ohio utilities recover network transmission costs, which they're billed by PJM under FERC-approved rates, through non-bypassable riders:

AEP Ohio: Basic Transmission Cost Rider (BTCR). General-service customers are billed on annual usage and/or non-coincident demand. Customers in AEP's pilot program are billed on their share of the annual system peak (1CP).
Duke Energy Ohio: Rider BTR. It has been non-bypassable since 2012, when Duke took over network transmission costs from suppliers.
FirstEnergy utilities: Rider NMB. Most of it is network transmission service (NITS), plus transmission enhancement charges, generation deactivation charges and some ancillary services. A pilot lets a limited number of large customers bypass it.
AES Ohio: Transmission Cost Recovery Rider – Non-bypassable (TCRR-N).

Because these riders pass through regional transmission investment, they tend to rise as PJM's transmission build-out continues. For most businesses the only levers are indirect: being on the right rate schedule and keeping demand under control. The exception is customers in a pilot billed on their single annual peak, for whom load during that peak hour directly sets the charge. For who pays for grid build-out, see infrastructure modernization.

Capacity pass-throughs: the supply charge that acts like a rider

On the default service, capacity is built into the SSO price. With a supplier, it's either fixed in your ¢/kWh or passed through as a separate line: your capacity tag × the PJM price for each delivery year. If it's passed through, it's as unavoidable as a utility rider for that year. Illustrative cost for a 150 kW tag:

Delivery year	$/MW-day	≈ $/kW-year	Cost for a 150 kW tag
2024/25	$28.92	$10.56	$1,584
2025/26	$269.92	$98.52	$14,778
2026/27	$329.17	$120.15	$18,023
2027/28	$333.44	$121.71	$18,257
2028/29	$325.00	$118.63	$17,795

Duke's zone cleared higher in 2024/25 ($96.24/MW-day, or about $35.13/kW-year), so Duke customers saw a smaller relative jump. A pass-through isn't bad in itself. If you can lower your tag by cutting load during PJM's summer peak hours, you keep that saving. See the PLC reduction playbook. The trouble comes when a contract looks fixed but lists capacity, "RPM," or "change in law" among its pass-throughs. For all the auction results, see PJM capacity costs explained.

What to do with this

Split the last 12 bills into shoppable lines (energy, capacity) and non-shoppable lines (transmission, distribution, riders, tax).
Confirm the OVEC or legacy-generation line has disappeared from bills issued after August 2025. If a similarly named charge remains, ask the utility what it is.
Track rider changes by effective date. Transmission riders update yearly, and rate-case changes land on the dates in the table above.
AEP Ohio customers: watch for the new bill format this fall, and plan for the tax-refund credit to end.
Read your supply contract's pass-through list before the next June 1, when both tags and capacity prices change.
Build these dates into your forecast. See forecasting costs to 2028.

FAQ

Which charges on an Ohio business electric bill can't be shopped?

Distribution rates and riders, the utility's network transmission rider, customer charges and the kWh tax. Only energy and capacity are set by your supplier, and capacity only if the contract doesn't pass it through.

Did the OVEC charge go away?

Yes, for customers of Ohio's investor-owned utilities. HB 15 ended the legacy generation (OVEC) rider on August 14, 2025. Electric cooperative members still pay for those plants through their co-op's power supplier.

Why did my AEP Ohio transmission charge go up?

AEP Ohio's Basic Transmission Cost Rider is updated each year to recover PJM transmission costs. The update approved for April 2026 raised the typical residential bill by about $7.90 a month, and business impact depends on rate schedule and usage.

Is a capacity pass-through the same as a utility charge?

Not legally, but it works like one. You pay your capacity tag times the PJM price for each delivery year, currently about $120 per kW-year for 2026/27, whatever your fixed energy price.