08-05-2025
Bipartisan bill would require greater oversight for utility resellers
State Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, describing legislation to regulate submetering companies. (Photo by Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Many Ohioans living in multi-unit developments get their utility services through their landlord rather than a power or gas company.
A bipartisan pair of state lawmakers argue that arrangement leaves consumers unprotected and opens the door to higher rates or unnecessary fees. They want to see those submetering companies regulated like utilities.
'If you act like a utility, and you look like a utility, and you smell like a utility, and you sound like a utility — you're a utility,' said state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma. 'And you should therefore, have the same PUCO oversight as any other utility in the state of Ohio.'
For large developments like apartment buildings, condominiums and manufactured home parks, setting up a different meter for every unit can be cumbersome. Instead, third party companies offer to set up a single meter for the entire complex and then purchase utilities wholesale. The company then resells the services to residents and bills them directly.
The problem, argued state Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, is submetered residents don't get the benefit of shopping around for their utility provider and the company they're forced to purchase from isn't regulated.
'At my core, I'm a free market conservative,' Fischer said. 'What I do not believe in is businesses who are selling the same product to customers while playing by a completely different set of rules.'
He argued if the Ohio has built its energy market to provide lower rates through competition, it doesn't make sense to allow companies to carve out little monopolies for themselves.
'Submetering may appear to be a simple pass-through of utility costs,' Brennan added, 'but in practice, these companies operate in a legal gray area.'
Most glaring — there's no entity determining whether utility rates passed on to consumers are fair. But the sponsors said residents miss out on benefits like low-income energy assistance programs or dispute resolution before state regulators.
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Brennan noted lawmakers just approved House Bill 15, which included several provisions strengthening consumer protections — like requiring utilities to justify their rates before state regulators on a regular basis.
He argued those utilities are 'subject to consumer protection laws, disconnection procedures, billing transparency requirements and complaint resolution mechanisms.'
'But submetering companies are not bound by any of these same obligations, even though the service they provide is identical from the customer's point of view,' Brennan said.
Ohio utility regulators' decision disenfranchised apartment renters, consumer advocate says
Brennan and Fischer's proposal has the backing of Ohio Consumers' Counsel Maureen Willis. Her office represents consumers in proceedings before the PUCO.
She pointed to residents' lack of choice and lack of protections, saying it's 'not fair and it's not transparent.'
'This bill closes that loophole,' Willis said. 'It restores the basic principle that no one should profit off reselling essential services without public accountability.'
In addition to Brennan and Fischer's proposal, a different measure would explicitly exempt submetering companies from utility regulation, while prohibiting them from jacking up rates. Under that proposal, sponsored by state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, and state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, submetering companies could charge no more than the standard consumer rate charged by the local utility.
Nationwide Energy Partners, which provides submetered services in Central Ohio, favors that approach. In a dispute between the company and AEP Ohio, the PUCO sided with NEP. Their decision required AEP to add provisions to its term sheet (known as a tariff) to allow NEP to continue providing service and put residents on similar footing with people who are not submetered.
'NEP has been supportive of consumer protections and specifically supports the consumer protections the PUCO put into tariffs,' an NEP spokesperson said. 'We believe that's the correct approach for legislation. Putting those tariff requirements into statute would give the PUCO clear authority over submetering and embed the current PUCO requirements for bill cap and disconnect into law.'
But while submetering companies argue they're operating fairly, Fischer said he has 'no way of proving their claims one way or another.'
That's the whole point of a public regulatory process, he said.
'If, in fact, these submeter companies are doing as they say,' Fischer argued, 'then they should have no problems continuing under Public Utilities Commission oversight.'
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