WESTERVILLE, Ohio — The city says Westerville Electric Division customer bills are not impacted by the recently announced rate hikes by AEP Ohio.
AEP recently told customers to expect a hike of around 30% of their total bill.
“During the most recent auctions, held in November 2022 and March 2023, the cost of procuring generation supply increased significantly and AEP Ohio is required to pass these costs along to customers,” AEP Ohio said. “The results of these two auctions are blended to create the new rate.”
Westerville residents are served by the city’s public power utility. An average residential customer in Westerville can expect to pay 16% less than AEP customers today, according to the city. They say that gap will widen when AEP’s new pricing goes into effect this summer.
Westerville says it does not rely on chance to secure reasonable electric rates for customers.
The City purchases power from the market, but the cost of transmission and other bill components are primarily out of Westerville’s control. Those prices are based on, among other things, the highest peak consumption days in any given year. Therefore, the overall cost of power in the future will be partially based on the highest days of power consumption leading up to that year.