COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio began an investigation and review of all of Ohio’s electric companies following the June 13 derecho. Following the storm, hundreds of thousands were without power. Some customers were in the dark for nearly a week during the hottest days of 2022 thus far.
In Columbus, AEP purposely disconnected nearly 150,000 customers. Officials with the power company cited the need to “lighten the electrical load” so that further repairs could be made. Minority community activists questioned AEP’s decision, saying that it targeted low-income and minority areas. AEP denied the claims.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine commented Tuesday on the review.
“On Wednesday, June 15, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio announced that it would conduct a review of all Ohio’s electric utilities related to electric power outages following storms that occurred on June 13th and any actions that those utilities may or may not have taken.
I support this review and note that many of the questions Ohioans are asking in the light of these power failures should be reviewed as part of the PUCO process, including:
- What steps are Ohio’s utilities taking to ensure that the significant disruption Ohioans experienced last week does not occur again?
- Why certain central Ohio neighborhoods lost power and others did not?
- Why certain northeast Ohio communities took the better part of a week to come back online?
- Did utilities do enough to communicate to their customers ahead of planned power shut offs to protect the grid, especially when electronic communications cannot be accessed without electricity?
“I look forward to the findings of the PUCO.”
