Ohio’s utilities just can’t seem to pass muster when it comes to preventing power outages and getting the lights back on quickly.
In 2025, four of the state’s six regulated electric utilities failed to provide the level of reliable service expected by regulators — marking the 10th year in a row when at least one company has missed. Yet now, as customers see skyrocketing energy bills, the shortfall has some groups urging the state to reject utility requests to lower their reliability standards even further.
“Ohioans should expect the same utilities bragging about record profits to improve their service, not get worse,” said Karin Nordstrom, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council.
Looming large over the debate is the fact that Ohio leaders and utilities have blocked measures that could have improved reliability over the years. With 2019’s scandal-plagued House Bill 6, legislators gutted the state’s clean energy standards, which could have spurred the development of more solar and wind power that may relieve long-distance transmission congestion or provide alternate generation when fossil-fuel or nuclear power plants are offline. And utilities in the state have a history of opposing requirements for energy-efficiency measures, which can mitigate strain on the grid by reducing overall demand.
