Ohio Electricity Rates per kWh: Standard Offer, Aggregation or a Supplier

The lowest 12-month rate on Ohio’s official chart for Cleveland homes was 8.47¢. It also charges $14.95 a month, so a small apartment pays more than on the default price. We tested every fixed offer in all six utility areas after fees.

The cheapest rate on the list, tested over a year

Ohio’s Apples to Apples charts sort offers by cents per kWh, so plans with a monthly fee float to the top. In the Illuminating Company’s area on 6 November, the lowest fixed 12-month price was 8.47¢, with a $14.95 monthly fee. We priced that plan against the utility’s 11.24¢ price to compare at three levels of yearly use.

The fee wins in a big house and loses in an apartment. The break-even sits near 6,500 kWh a year, about 540 kWh a month. And it was not the best deal for the average home: plans at 10.09¢ with no fee came to about $1,047, roughly $11 less, with nothing to pay in a month you barely use.

So convert before you compare. Multiply the fee by 12, divide by your yearly kWh, and add the result to the rate. For the average Ohio home, $14.95 a month works out to 1.73¢ per kWh; $19.99 works out to 2.31¢.

Six utilities, and only some of them reward shopping

We repeated that test for every fixed offer of 12 months or more without an introductory price, in all six areas, using the average home’s 10,375 kWh.

Suppliers quote similar prices statewide. What separates the areas is the utility’s own number. In FirstEnergy territory, more than half of plans clear it even with fees. At AEP Ohio, only 3 of 93 do, and two of those three carry a $100 early termination fee. The median fixed offer at AEP Ohio was 11.49¢, well above its 10.19¢ default.

These prices have short lives. AEP Ohio’s runs to 31 December and Duke’s to 30 November. Ohio Edison’s, Toledo’s and Illuminating’s are quoted for October to December. AES Ohio’s 10.86¢ holds until May 2027, and homes on its electric heating rate pay 9.18¢ from November to May. A plan that beats today’s figure may not beat January’s.

Fees go in the calculator too

This one has a box for a monthly fee, so a low-rate plan gets a fair test. Put in the rate and fee from the chart, pick your utility, and try your own monthly kWh. Delivery does not change with the supplier.

Community deals explain Ohio’s level result

Against the pattern in most choice states, Ohio’s supplier homes roughly broke even in 2025: 2,989,485 homes paid 16.97¢ per kWh against 17.03¢ at standard service. Most are in a city, township or county aggregation, where the community picks a supplier for every home that does not opt out.

Worked out from EIA-861 for 2025: suppliers’ revenue from homes plus the utilities’ delivery-only revenue, divided by the kWh, against the same kWh at each utility’s default-service price per kWh. Aggregation programmes count as suppliers. The averages hide wide differences between contracts.

That average hides individual contracts, and the sales pitch at your door is not the same thing as your town’s programme. A letter gives you the chance to opt out. Compare its rate with the chart for your utility just as you would any offer, because an aggregation can end up above a price to compare that resets every quarter.

EIA-861 for 2025, Sales to Ultimate Customers (residential): every utility, supplier and retail provider’s own report.

Delivery is where the next increases sit

No supplier can touch this part of the bill, and it is under review across the state. House Bill 15, signed in May 2025, ends the electric security plans that carried many utility riders. It also ended the old coal plant subsidies. FirstEnergy’s plan ends on 31 May 2029, and utilities must now come in for regular rate cases.

FirstEnergy filed the first three-year plan in 2026. Using its own figures for a home on 1,000 kWh, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel lists these rises.

Those are requests, not decisions; a public hearing is set for 2 December 2026. In AEP Ohio’s area, the Public Utilities Commission approved a distribution change on 1 April 2026. Four advocacy groups said that if the company spends all it was allowed, an average home pays up to $4.38 a month more by the end of 2026 and $10.28 by 2028, on top of a transmission rise approved in March.

AEP Ohio has the costliest wires

Here is the other half of AEP’s story. Its low supply price sits on the state’s dearest delivery: 10.26¢ per kWh in 2025 for supplier homes, against 7.07¢ at AES Ohio and 7.42¢ at Ohio Edison. FirstEnergy runs three of the six companies, each with its own tariff.

— in the last two columns: the utility reported no homes on delivery-only service to EIA for 2025, so none of its homes bought power from a supplier. All 6 are city utilities, public districts or co-ops.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

One real peak, in July

The year’s bills went from $115 in October to $224 in July, with a second, lower hump of $195 in January. Summer is where a usage-sensitive plan matters most, and it is also when a fee plan does least harm.

From below average to above it

A kWh that cost 11.31¢ in 2010 averaged 18.42¢ in the last 12 months, up 63%. It sat below the national average in nearly every full year to 2022. Default power is bought at auction, so wholesale and capacity costs arrived on bills with a delay, and the average has been above the US figure over the last year.

Big users among the Great Lakes states

The state ranks 4th of 5 in the East North Central region, at 2% above the US average. High use pushes the typical bill to 22nd of 51.

Across the border: Kentucky 13.95¢, West Virginia 15.53¢, Indiana 16.90¢, Pennsylvania 20.86¢, Michigan 21.28¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

What we left out of the counts

We counted fixed-price offers with terms of 12 months or more and no introductory rate, as shown on the charts for 6 November. A flat plan listed by Santanna Energy Services, around $75 to $83 a month whatever you use, cannot be compared on rate, so it is excluded. The yearly test holds each price flat for 12 months, including the price to compare, which will not really happen, and it leaves out delivery. The average home is from EIA for September 2025 to August 2026.

EIA’s series has dipped sharply in some autumns, by about 9% in September 2014 and 10% in September 2018, as summer prices ended. These figures are shown as published.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• Ohio, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 2.0 (6 November 2026): rebuilt from the Energy Choice Ohio charts: fixed offers tested after monthly fees in all six utility areas, a fee break-even, proposed FirstEnergy increases and the effect of House Bill 15.
• 1.0.1 (November 2026): wording and page heading tidied; no figures changed.
• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.