Could Utilities Pay For Long Black Outs
For the past two years, the Cleveland area has been hit by frequent summer black outs. These events have caused disruptions to homes and businesses alike. So now, Ohio lawmakers have introduced a new bill that could force Ohio energy utilities to pay customers for long black outs. But why pass this law and how could it affect Ohio customers?
Reasons For HB1014
Over the past two years, Lakewood and other Cleveland area towns were hit with frequent summer black outs. This included 12 reported outages between May 1 through July 25, 2025 as well as and several others that summer. The situation became so severe that customers and community leaders called for PUCO to investigate the outages. PUCO found that FirstEnergy was at fault and was charged a $3 million fine. Unfortunately, under Ohio law none of that money would go to affected customers.
As you can guess, this didn’t sit right with many customers or lawmakers. For that reason, Ohio lawmakers introduced HB1014.
What Does HB1014 Do?
As written, the bill holds utilities accountable for extended outages. Specifically, it would do the following:
- Force automatic bill credits of at least $50 (or the cost of their monthly electric bill) for outages lasting 16 hours or more
- Refund customers up to $250 for self-reported losses and up to $600 for documented losses of spoiled food and medicine
- Prevent utilities from raising rates or adding fees to cover costs for these credits and refunds.
Ohio Law Considerations
Obviously, this bill is set up to make utilities keep their grids reliable. But updating local grids to prevent black outs costs a lot of money. So, utilities may be tempted to ask for more rate hikes.
According to one analysis, the average customer is willing to pay $57 to prevent a 24 hour blackout. That’s about one third of the average residential Ohio energy bill, about $135, in 2024. So utilities will have to make interruption cost estimates to balance the cost to customers and the cost of upgrades.
Will HB1014 Become Law in Ohio?
The bill was only been introduced in late September, 2026. So it will have to be discussed and debated before it can come close to being made into law. The bill may go through some committee changes before it comes up for a vote, if it does at all. However, we will keep an eye on this story while it develops.
In the meantime, you can shop for the best electricity rates in town at https://www.ohenergyratings.com. You can also count on us for all the other news and tips that could affect your bills.