Ohio · electric utility
AEP Ohio Standard Service Offer & rate increases
AEP Ohio is a American Electric Power (AEP) utility serving central, southeastern, and northwestern Ohio (including Columbus) (about 1.5 million customers). AEP Ohio is the state's largest electric utility, formed from AEP's Columbus Southern Power and Ohio Power zones. (source)
Standard Service Offer (current rate)
10.12¢/kWh
Effective (current) · verified
Of the 6 Ohio utilities we track, AEP Ohio's Standard Service Offer is the lowest — the range runs from 10.12¢ (AEP Ohio) to 11.11¢ (The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)). Compare all Ohio rates →
What it means: a AEP Ohio customer on a 17¢/kWh third-party supplier rate pays about $710 more per year than the Standard Service Offer (10.12¢), based on ~860 kWh/month. The audit below checks your actual rate.
AEP Ohio customer service & quick facts
The official ways to reach AEP Ohio for outages, billing, and account help. RateWatchdog is independent and not affiliated with AEP Ohio — these are the utility's own channels.
- Customer service
- 1-800-672-2231
- Pay your bill
- Pay AEP Ohio bill online →
- Start, stop, or move service
- Start / stop service →
Verified · confirm on AEP Ohio's siteHere to check if your rate is too high? Jump to the audit ↓
Is your supplier charging more?
Runs entirely in your browser. We never see your numbers.
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.
Is AEP Ohio a monopoly? Can you switch?
For delivery, yes — it's a monopoly. AEP Ohio is the only company that runs the poles and wires to homes in its territory, so you can't pick a different company to deliver your power. That part is a regulated monopoly: AEP Ohio, owned by American Electric Power (AEP), can only charge what the PUCO approves in a rate case.
The electricity itself, though, is open to competition. You can buy your supply from a third-party supplier, or do nothing and stay on AEP Ohio's default rate — the Standard Service Offer the PUCO oversees. Switching suppliers doesn't change who delivers your power or who you call during an outage; it only changes the supply line on your bill. And if a supplier is charging more than the Standard Service Offer, you can drop it and return to that regulated rate, usually within one or two billing cycles — no fee to the utility.
How often does AEP Ohio's power go out?
Federal reliability data, reported by the utility to the U.S. government. SAIDI is the average total time a customer is without power in a year; SAIFI is the average number of outages.
In 2024, including major storms
4 hr 32 min
without power, across about 1.1 outages
What the average customer actually experienced.
On a typical day (storms excluded)
2 hr 38 min
without power, across about 1 outages
Normal operations, with major event days removed.
For AEP Ohio, major storms drove roughly 42% of 2024's total outage time — the gap between the two numbers above is weather the utility couldn't fully control.
On normal-day reliability, AEP Ohio is the least reliable of the 6 Ohio utilities we track — the range runs from 1 hr 35 min (Toledo Edison (FirstEnergy)) to 2 hr 38 min (AEP Ohio) of typical-day outage time per year.
Source: U.S. EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 reliability data (IEEE 1366 standard), for Ohio Power Co. eia.gov →
How often does AEP Ohio shut off power for nonpayment?
Utilities report this to the federal government. It counts residential electric service shut off for unpaid bills — a measure of how a regulated monopoly treats customers who fall behind.
Disconnections in 2024
172,411
times AEP Ohio cut off residential power for nonpayment
Per 100 households
12.9
disconnections for every 100 residential customers it serves
That's the highest disconnection rate of the 6 Ohio utilities we track — the range runs from 2.9 per 100 (Ohio Edison (FirstEnergy)) to 12.9 per 100 (AEP Ohio).
Counts disconnection events — one household can be shut off more than once. From AEP Ohio's own filings to the U.S. EIA (Form EIA-112, Residential Utility Disconnections Survey), first collected for 2024. eia.gov →
Where your bill money goes: how AEP Ohio earns its profit
Because AEP Ohio is a regulated monopoly, its profit isn't set by competing for customers — it's set by regulators. The PUCO lets it earn a guaranteed return (an authorized "return on equity," which for U.S. electric utilities is typically around 9.5% to 10.5%) on the money it sinks into poles, wires, substations, and meters. You pay that return back — plus the investment itself — through the delivery charge on every bill.
AEP Ohio is owned by American Electric Power. In 2024, American Electric Power reported about $3.0 billion in net income — its profit across all of the utilities it owns, not AEP Ohio alone. Source: American Electric Power's annual report (SEC Form 10-K, fiscal year 2024). SEC EDGAR →
That return is essentially locked in regardless of how often the power goes out or how many customers get disconnected for nonpayment — the two measures above.
Rate cases & increases
- 25-392-EL-AIR effective
AEP Ohio's base distribution rate case. Filed May 2025 seeking ~$97 million; PUCO adopted a settlement effective April 1, 2026 raising base distribution revenue by only ~$11 million — and combined with a ~$105 million federal tax refund over 18 months, the net effect is roughly a $58.7 million annual revenue decrease.
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