Duke Energy Ohio Standard Service Offer & rate increases

Standard Service Offer (current rate)

10.69¢/kWh

Effective July 1, 2026 (current) · last reviewed July 19, 2026

Estimate for comparison — confirm the current rate and all charges with Duke Energy Ohio before acting. Not advice.

Next scheduled reset: August 1, 2026 · Monthly. Every utility's reset calendar →

Of the 6 Ohio utilities we track, Duke Energy Ohio's Standard Service Offer is the lowest — the range runs from 10.69¢ (Duke Energy Ohio) to 11.16¢ (The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy)). Compare all Ohio rates →

What it means: a Duke Energy Ohio customer on a 17¢/kWh third-party supplier rate pays about $650 more per year than the Standard Service Offer (10.69¢), based on ~860 kWh/month. The audit below checks your actual rate.

The worth-it line: for a switch to save at least $10/month at ~750 kWh, a supplier offer must be a fixed rate below 9.36¢/kWh — with no monthly fee and no cancellation fee. Offers between 9.36¢ and 10.69¢ technically "beat" the Standard Service Offer but save too little to justify contract risk. The full math, all utilities →

Duke Energy Ohio customer service & quick facts

The official ways to reach Duke Energy Ohio for outages, billing, and account help. RateWatchdog is independent and not affiliated with Duke Energy Ohio — these are the utility's own channels.

Customer service

1-800-544-6900

Mon–Fri 7am–7pm ET

Report a power outage

1-800-543-5599

Live outage map →

Pay your bill

Pay Duke Energy Ohio bill online →

Verified June 15, 2026 · confirm on Duke Energy Ohio's siteHere to check if your rate is too high? Jump to the audit ↓

Is Duke Energy Ohio a monopoly? Can you switch?

For delivery, yes — it's a monopoly. Duke Energy 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: Duke Energy Ohio, owned by Duke Energy, 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 Duke Energy 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 Duke Energy 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.

For Duke Energy Ohio, major storms drove roughly 68% 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, Duke Energy Ohio is the 2nd-most 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 Duke Energy Ohio Inc. eia.gov →

How often does Duke Energy Ohio disconnect customers for nonpayment?

Utilities report this to the federal government. It counts residential service disconnected for unpaid bills. A high rate isn't proof of wrongdoing — it's shaped by local poverty, climate, and how strong a state's shutoff-protection rules are, as much as by the utility itself.

That's the 5th-lowest 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 Duke Energy 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 Duke Energy Ohio earns its profit

Because Duke Energy Ohio is a regulated monopoly, its profit isn't set by competing for customers — it's set by regulators. The PUCO authorizes a target return on equity (around 9.5% to 10.5% for U.S. electric utilities) on the money it sinks into poles, wires, substations, and meters. It's a target, not a guarantee — a utility can earn above or below it — but a low-risk regulated monopoly reliably lands close. You pay that return back, plus the investment itself, through the delivery charge on every bill.

Duke Energy Ohio is owned by Duke Energy. In 2024, Duke Energy reported about $4.5 billion in net income — its profit across all of the utilities it owns, not Duke Energy Ohio alone. Source: Duke Energy's annual report (SEC Form 10-K, fiscal year 2024). SEC EDGAR →

That authorized return is set by regulators on the utility's investment — independently of how reliable the service is or how many customers are disconnected, the two measures above.