A state agency went to the Ohio Supreme Court after the court said Duke Energy is passing a $14 million bill to its customers for a mistake the agency says Duke made.
The issue began in 2022, when Duke Energy and 15 other state partners (including the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio Energy Group) agreed to a $23 million rate increase for customers. This negotiated agreement allowed for a $23 million distribution rate increase to its nearly 700,000 Duke consumers.
In a separate, later “rider” case filed in 2023, a $14 million error from the rate case surfaced. The math error related to Duke not counting accumulated deferred taxes correctly in the rate case. If a correction could be made, Duke would be able to collect an additional $14 million above and beyond the $23 million increase approved in the 2022 case.
In oral arguments to the state supreme court on Feb. 11, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Council presented an audit completed in 2023 that found Duke had essentially under-billed its customers $14 million due to a mathematical error.
Jon Blackwood of the Ohio Consumers’ Council said the state’s public utilities commission allowed Duke to tack the $14 million onto the already agreed upon rate hike in 2022, for a new total of $37 million.
Duke made a correction to its quarterly rider filing on Nov. 29, 2023 where it placed the $14 million charge in rider rates, with a one-year collection period. Duke’s rider rates took effect on January 2, 2024.
On January 8, 2025, PUCO approved Duke’s rider filing in its order.
That, Blackwood said, is illegal in Ohio.
“That’s what we consider to be retroactive ratemaking,” Blackwood said in documents filed with the supreme court. The rate hike agreement, Blackwood argued, was made in 2022. Duke should not then be allowed to increase that amount after the fact, especially for a mistake the company itself made, the consumers’ council argued to the supreme court.
The Ohio Supreme Court is now working through a decision, which could take months.
Duke Energy did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Public Utilities Commission said it cannot comment because the case is ongoing.
Click here to watch the Ohio Consumers’ Council’s oral arguments to the Ohio Supreme Court.