NEP Advocates for Consumer Protections in Submetering Industry

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than a decade, NEP has supported and advocated for consumer protections in the submetering industry. Through multiple publicly available testimony sessions before the Ohio legislature, as well as our continued defense of PUCO's efforts to regulate the industry, NEP has consistently and clearly voiced – on the public record – our belief that regulation with competition is the right approach.

We have supported the clear and direct regulation in House Bill 173 and Senate Bill 108, which place us directly under the jurisdiction of the PUCO, and we support the existing PUCO regulations.

Today, the Supreme Court heard a case in which AEP Ohio is opposing the PUCO's regulation of submetering. The PUCO order, challenged by AEP Ohio, requires a landlord who submeters to do all of the following:

1. Notice must be provided within the landlord's lease agreement stating that, by signing the lease, the tenant agrees to have the landlord secure and resell electricity to the tenant and that, under current law, the tenant is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Commission and loses the rights under law associated with being under the Commission's jurisdiction. This language should be printed in the lease in all capital letters and in a minimum font larger than the remainder of the lease language.
   
   
2. The landlord's charges for resale of electricity to each tenant must be the same or lower than the total bill for a similarly situated customer served by the applicable utility's standard service offer.
   
   
3. When engaging in the disconnection of electric service to a tenant for nonpayment of charges related to electric usage, the landlord must follow the same disconnect standards applicable to landlords under Ohio Adm. Code Chapter 4901:1-18.

AEP Ohio has asked the Supreme Court to overturn that order and eliminate the consumer protections ordered by the PUCO. NEP pushed back on AEP Ohio's arguments today, advocating that those consumer protections remain in place.

NEP provides products and services that would otherwise be unavailable to residents. Our microgrids bring greater resilience and grid-supportive technologies not generally available to the multifamily space, such as 100% carbon-free energy to the entire property.

We believe consumer protections, such as those provided by the PUCO, elevate all businesses to a higher level, and we will continue to advocate for these protections in Ohio.

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SOURCE Nationwide Energy Partners