Ohio ratepayer advocate urges FERC to resolve 3-year-old local transmission complaint

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should resolve a three-year-old complaint that aims to address Ohio utilities’ “unchecked investment in local transmission and supplemental projects,” the Ohio ratepayer advocate said Thursday.

Local transmission projects built in Ohio by utilities owned by American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, AES and Duke Energy lack regulatory oversight and should be reviewed by FERC, according to a complaint filed at the agency in September 2023 by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, or OCC.

Since the complaint was filed, the Ohio utilities have included more than $4.3 billion of local transmission and supplemental projects in PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan, the OCC said in its motion for expedited action.

“As OCC’s complaint seeking relief for consumers languishes, Ohio transmission utilities have spent billions of dollars for local transmission and supplemental projects that no regulatory authority has reviewed for necessity, prudency, or cost-effectiveness,” the ratepayer advocate said.