Our family was lucky and barely lost power, but we had reporters without power for days (and even our newsroom lost power for long enough that we had to throw out all the food in the fridge). Reporter Tom Gnau investigated the performance of AES Ohio in keeping power flowing to customers in recent years.
Here are six key takeaways from Tom’s reporting:
• Key findings: Dayton electric utility AES Ohio (formerly DP&L) failed to meet industry standards for how long customers go without power four of the past five years, a Dayton Daily News investigation found. Read Tom’s full story here.
• Penalty: The penalty AES Ohio is facing for falling short of the standard is a $30,000 fine. AES Corp., the parent company of AES Ohio, took in more than $6 billion in revenue in the first six months of this year.
• ‘Paying a lot of money’: Maureen Willis, the Ohio Consumers Counsel, notes AES customers pay multiple “riders” meant to guarantee reliability.
- “The 519,000 customers of AES are paying a lot of money for reliability,” Willis said. “And it doesn’t seem like they’re getting it.”
• AES responds: AES officials say they are making improvements, and note they met the industry standard in 2023.
• Changing times: Industry experts say changing weather patterns, an increasing reliance on diverse energy sources and increasing demand for electricity all are complicating factors; but there are ways to improve the power grid.
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