Before
The Ohio Senate
Energy Committee
Testimony on Senate Bill 298
(Regards virtual net metering and meter aggregation)
Maureen Willis, Agency Director
Ohio Consumers’ Counsel
On Behalf of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel
April 14, 2026
Hello Chairman Chavez, Vice Chair Landis, Ranking Member Smith, and Committee members. I hope you and your colleagues are well. Thank you for this opportunity to provide proponent testimony on Senate Bill 298.
My name is Maureen Willis. I am the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel; the Director of OCC. OCC is the state agency that has been the voice for Ohio residential utility consumers for almost fifty years. I am testifying on behalf of Ohio’s 4.5 million residential consumers.
We thank Senator Romanchuk for proposing a constructive framework to empower private (and not utility consumer funded) development of off-site energy projects in Ohio. Under this legislation, virtual net metering will become a new option for mercantile customers to meet their power needs and better manage costs. These new energy projects are often located on brownfields, landfills, and abandoned mine lands. They can be beneficial for economic development and environmental protection.
OCC supports S.B. 298 because this legislation, through the expansion of virtual net metering in Ohio, can have a substantial impact in addressing the two critical energy issues in Ohio. Those issues are the projected surging demand from data centers and the high monthly electricity bills paid by all Ohioans.
But more importantly, we support this legislation because it can achieve these goals without government mandate or utility ratepayer support. OCC has been a strong advocate for using a market-based approach, whenever appropriate, in achieving desirable outcomes in Ohio’s energy markets. The same principle should apply to virtual net metering projects in Ohio. Let the marketplace decide who can best supply electricity to Ohio households and businesses. Government mandates and mandated support from captive utility customers will likely hurt, not help, the Ohio economy.
S. B. 298 has several advantages, as compared to other similar legislation, in pursuing an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that values affordability, reliability and diversity.
The advantages of S. B. 298 over other similar legislation includes the following:
(1) This legislation does not create a new mandate. S.B. 298 does not require the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to establish a fixed (sometimes arbitrary) amount of virtual net metering projects or capacity (KW) within a certified service territory of an electric utility. Such a mandate can be counter-productive because the development of an energy project (or specifically a virtual net metering project) is site-specific and can and should be developed only under the “right” market conditions. These market conditions (such as the price of electricity, the interest rate, the federal and state tax codes) can change quickly and a legislative mandate might not be able to predict or influence the market conditions.
(2) This legislation does not require the PUCO to establish and maintain support (via utility consumer bills) to the developers of virtual net metering projects.
(3) This legislation does not favor or discriminate against any specific energy resource or technology. Many types of energy resource and technology can be included in a virtual net metering system. Specifically, solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, or hydropower can be used as fuels. Microturbine, natural gas-fired generator, battery-storage system, and fuel-cell are also allowed.
(4) This legislation protects residential consumers from unnecessary costs and cost shifting. Under this legislation, residential consumers cannot be a customer of a virtual net metering system. S.B. 298 also prevents cost shifting by prohibiting residential consumers from “being required to directly or indirectly incur any costs or be charged for any costs related to virtual net metering”. This is the same type of protection afforded to large industrial customers in other similar legislation. Costs should follow benefits. Residential consumers who do not participate in or benefit from virtual net metering projects should not be required to pay for them.
In closing, an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy is the right way forward. In adopting this strategy, all forms of energy source and technology are allowed to compete freely and fairly without government mandates or support from utility consumers. S.B. 298 is a practical, common-sense approach that will deliver additional power without unnecessary costs to all Ohio households and businesses.
I urge you to support this legislation. Thank you.
1 Under existing law, a mercantile customer is defined as a commercial or industrial customer if the electricity consumed is for nonresidential use and the customer consumes more than 700,000 kilowatt hours per year or is part of a national account involving multiple facilities in one or more states. See Ohio Revised Code Sec. 4928.01(A)(19).
2 See Sec. 4928.676 (E).
3 See Sec. 4928.676 (B).
4 See Sec. 4928.675 (B).
5 See Sec. 4928.679 (G).
6 See Sec. 4934.072 in H.B. 303.