Media Statement
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) filed expert testimony on Oct. 10, urging the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to order $82.6 million in refunds for AES Ohio consumers (formerly DP&L). This follows the Ohio Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the PUCO wrongly allowed the utility to keep millions in excessive profits from its electric security plan in 2018 and 2019.
The Supreme Court confirmed that AES Ohio overcharged consumers by $61 million in profits that the PUCO had improperly let the utility retain. Yet AES now proposes to refund only $1.6 million – a fraction of what consumers are owed.
OCC’s expert economist, Dr. Jonathan Lesser, filed testimony today calling for the full $61 million plus interest – a total of $82.6 million – to be refunded to consumers. Dr. Lesser testified that $51 million of that belongs to AES’s 540,000 residential consumers.
Dr. Lesser’s testimony can be viewed at this link: https://dis.puc.state.oh.us/DocumentRecord.aspx?DocID=47924f55-009d-4d80-9195-e397a5e3656d
OCC’s filing today reaffirms the PUCO’s original analysis, finding $61 million of excess profits were earned by AES, triggering the need for refunds to consumers.
Statement by Maureen Willis, Agency Director of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel: “The Supreme Court sided with consumers. Now the PUCO should do the same—by rejecting AES’s $1.6 million token offer and ordering the full refund Ohioan are owed. Every dollar, with interest, must be returned to the Ohioans who paid it.” |
What’s Next
The PUCO will now move forward to consider AES’s future capital contributions as part of its analysis, as ordered by the Supreme Court. Testimony by the PUCO Staff is expected by Tuesday, Oct. 21. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday Oct. 28 at 10:00 a.m. in Hearing Room 11-A, at the offices of the Commission, 180 East Broad Street in Columbus.
Case Nos.: 18-1875-EL-GRD et al.
18-1875-EL-GRD Docket: https://dis.puc.state.oh.us/CaseRecord.aspx?CaseNo=18-1875
The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) is the state’s designated legal representative for Ohio’s residential consumers in matters related to their investor-owned utilities. Media contacts: https://www.occ.ohio.gov/media-contacts