Ohio electricity rates & utilities
We track 6 Ohio utilities and the rate cases at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. You can shop your electricity supplier here — so the bill audit applies.
Shopping for a supplier? Ohio's official comparison tool is Apples to Apples, run by PUCO — our guide to using it →
Ohio electricity prices by the numbers
Avg residential price
16.96¢/kWh
2025 · EIA
Change since 2019
+37%
+9% after inflation
Steepest single year
+11%
2022→2023
Standard Service Offer
10.69–11.16¢
Duke Energy Ohio ↔ The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)
Prices: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Real change uses U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI-U).
Current Ohio electricity rates by utility
The Standard Service Offer for each Ohio utility we track — supply only, sorted lowest first. This is the number any competitive supplier offer has to beat.
| Utility | Standard Service Offer | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Ohio | 10.69¢/kWh | |
| AES Ohio | 10.86¢/kWh | |
| Ohio Edison (FirstEnergy) | 10.92¢/kWh | |
| AEP Ohio | 10.97¢/kWh | |
| Toledo Edison (FirstEnergy) | 11.1¢/kWh | |
| The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy) | 11.16¢/kWh |
Supply-only rates; delivery charges are additional. Rates reset on each utility's schedule — confirm on your bill before acting.
What's driving Ohio electricity prices
Central Ohio is in a data-center boom around AEP Ohio — Intel's New Albany fab, Google, and AWS — and AEP Ohio's data-center load grew from about 100 MW in 2020 to 600 MW in 2024, with 5 GW forecast by 2030. In July 2025 Ohio regulators (PUCO) approved a first-of-its-kind tariff requiring new data centers over 25 MW to pay for at least 85% of their subscribed power for 12+ years, specifically to keep that build-out from shifting onto residential bills. — PUCO / Power Magazine.
How electricity rates work in Ohio
In Ohio, delivery of electricity is handled by your local utility and regulated by PUCO. The electricity itself (generation) is open to competition — you can shop suppliers or stay on your utility's default rate.
That default rate is the Standard Service Offer (SSO), which Ohio utilities set through a competitive auction. PUCO runs an 'Apples to Apples' site so you can compare supplier offers to the SSO.
A rate increase in Ohio usually means a distribution rate case at PUCO, a new SSO auction result, or — if you're on a competitive supplier — the rate in your own contract changing.
What you can do: Compare your supplier's rate to your utility's Standard Service Offer. If you're paying more, you can return to the SSO through your utility or Energy Choice Ohio.
Who's who on your Ohio electric bill
Four different players decide what you pay. Here's each one, in plain English:
Your utility — the "distributor"
The company that owns the poles and wires and physically delivers power to your home — the name on your bill (in Ohio, one of the utilities listed below, like AEP Ohio). This part is a regulated monopoly: only it delivers in your area, and the PUCO sets what it can charge for delivery. You can't shop the delivery part.
Generation — the "supply"
The electricity itself (also called supply or generation). You can buy it from your utility's default rate — the Standard Service Offer — or from a competing third-party supplier. It's the identical electricity either way; only the price differs.
PJM — the "grid operator"
The independent operator that runs the regional high-voltage grid for Ohio and 12 other states. It's like air-traffic control for electricity — it keeps enough power flowing across the whole region. Its wholesale costs flow through your utility into your bill. (More below.)
The PUCO — the "regulator"
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is the state agency that reviews and approves utility rate increases. When a utility wants to charge more, it files a "rate case" here — which is exactly what we track.
Putting it together: when you turn on a light in Ohio, the electricity was produced by power plants, routed across the region by PJM, and delivered to your house over AEP Ohio's wires (your distributor). Your bill charges you for both the supply (the electricity) and the delivery (the wires). If you signed up with a third-party supplier, they set the supply price; if not, you pay your utility's Standard Service Offer. The PUCO approves the delivery rates and oversees the default supply rate.
What is "PJM" and its "capacity market"? (plain English)
PJM is the independent operator that runs the high-voltage power grid for 13 states and Washington, D.C. — including yours. Think of it as air-traffic control for electricity: it doesn't own power plants or your wires, but it makes sure enough electricity is flowing across the whole region every second of the day. The wholesale costs PJM sets get passed through your utility into your bill.
The capacity market is a separate, once-a-year auction PJM runs. Instead of paying for electricity you use, it pays power plants just to promise they'll be ready on the few hottest or coldest days when demand peaks. That promise is called "capacity." It's like paying a backup generator a retainer to stay on standby — you pay even in months you never need it.
Why it matters now: when PJM expects demand to jump, those standby payments spike. Demand is jumping largely because of data centers, and PJM's recent capacity auctions hit record highs three times in a row. Utilities pass that cost straight to customers — which is a big reason bills across all five states we cover are rising. Sources: PJM; PJM Independent Market Monitor (Monitoring Analytics).
Ohio electricity prices over time
The average Ohio residential electricity price went from 12.38¢/kWh in 2019 to 16.96¢/kWh in 2025 — up 37%.
Ohio utilities we cover
- AEP Ohio
Standard Service Offer · 10.97¢/kWh
- AES Ohio
Standard Service Offer · 10.86¢/kWh
- Duke Energy Ohio
Standard Service Offer · 10.69¢/kWh
- Ohio Edison (FirstEnergy)
Standard Service Offer · 10.92¢/kWh
- The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)
Standard Service Offer · 11.16¢/kWh
- Toledo Edison (FirstEnergy)
Standard Service Offer · 11.1¢/kWh
Coverage note: We track Ohio's six investor-owned electric utilities. We don't cover municipal electric systems or rural electric cooperatives, which are not regulated by PUCO the same way.
Where to find your supply rate on a Ohio bill
Your utility's standard rate is the Standard Service Offer. On your bill, find the supply / generation rate in ¢/kWh and compare it to that — if a supplier charges more, you're overpaying. Here's the exact line to look for:
Where is this on my bill?
On your bill, find the supply rate in ¢/kWh. Your utility's standard rate is the “Standard Service Offer.” If your supplier charges more than that, you're overpaying.
Not sure switching is even worth it in Ohio? Read our honest, commission-free Ohio energy-choice guide →
Rate cases & increases
| Utility | Docket | Status | ~Bill impact | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DUKE-OHIO | 26-0132-EL-AIR | filed | $8/mo | — |
| AEP-OHIO | 25-392-EL-AIR | effective | — | |
| AES-OHIO | 24-1009-EL-AIR | effective | — | — |
| ILLUMINATING | 24-0468-EL-AIR | effective | — | |
| OHIO-EDISON | 24-0468-EL-AIR | effective | — | |
| TOLEDO-EDISON | 24-0468-EL-AIR | effective | — |
Ohio electricity rates: common questions
- What is the average electricity rate in Ohio?
- Ohio's average all-in residential electricity price was 16.96¢/kWh as of 2025, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The default supply portion (Standard Service Offer) currently runs from 10.69¢ (Duke Energy Ohio) to 11.16¢/kWh (The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)) depending on your utility; delivery charges are additional.
- Which Ohio utility has the cheapest electricity rate?
- Among the Ohio utilities we track, Duke Energy Ohio currently has the lowest default supply rate (10.69¢/kWh) and The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy) the highest (11.16¢/kWh). These are supply-only figures — your utility is determined by where you live, so the practical question isn't which utility to pick but whether a competitive supplier beats YOUR utility's default rate.
- Why are Ohio electricity rates going up?
- Ohio is in the PJM grid, where the annual capacity auction — the market that pays generators to be available at peak — has cleared at record levels since 2024: $269.92/MW-day in July 2024, an all-time high of $333.44 in December 2025, and $325 in July 2026 — the third consecutive auction pinned at the FERC cap. Those costs pass through to the supply portion of bills with no utility markup as each utility's default rate resets. Separate delivery-side rate cases at the PUCO add on top.