Ohio electricity prices - 19.19¢/kWh (June 2026)
Residential price, average bill, and the data-center story
- Residential electricity in Ohio costs 19.19¢/kWh as of - +9.7% year over year, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
- The average Ohio home used 869 kWh that month and paid an average bill of $166.81 (+2.3% vs a year earlier).
- Ohio has the 19th-highest residential electricity price of the 50 states and DC - 5% above the U.S. average of 18.34¢/kWh.
Price by sector
| Sector | ¢/kWh (June 2026) | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|
| Residential | 19.19¢ | +9.7% |
| Commercial | 13.77¢ | +21.5% |
| Industrial | 9.89¢ | +14.2% |
Data centers & Ohio's electric bills
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved an AEP Ohio data-center tariff in July 2025 requiring large new data-center customers to pay for at least 85% of subscribed energy under 12-year contracts, a decision now on appeal at the Ohio Supreme Court by the Ohio Manufacturers' Association Energy Group. Separately, AEP Ohio's transmission rider rose on April 1, 2026, adding about $7.90 per month for a typical residential customer, with grid expansion for large loads including data centers among the cited drivers.
- 2025-07-09 - On July 9, 2025, the PUCO approved AEP Ohio's data-center tariff requiring large new data-center customers to pay for a minimum of 85% of the energy they are subscribed to use under 12-year contracts that include a 4-year ramp-up, with proof of financial viability and an exit fee if a project is canceled, ending AEP Ohio's moratorium on new central Ohio data-center agreements. Source: American Electric Power (news release)
- 2026-03-24 - The Ohio Manufacturers' Association Energy Group appealed the PUCO's approval of AEP Ohio's data-center tariff (PUCO case No. 24-508-EL-ATA) to the Supreme Court of Ohio (case No. 2025-1458), where merit briefs had been filed as of March 24, 2026. Source: Supreme Court of Ohio (case filing)
- 2026-04-01 - AEP Ohio's Basic Transmission Cost Rider increased by about 0.79 cents per kilowatt-hour on April 1, 2026 - roughly $7.90 per month for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh - to recover transmission costs that AEP says include grid expansion for growing demand from large-scale projects like data centers. Source: ElectricityRates.com
Each item above is dated and linked to its primary source; entries are reviewed quarterly. See the large-load tariff tracker and the who-paid-what ledger for the cross-state picture.
Ohio is served by the PJM grid region, where the price of guaranteed generating capacity is set in an annual auction - see PJM capacity auction prices for how that reaches retail bills.
Water
Electricity delivered in Ohio carries 1.96 liters of water per kilowatt-hour consumed at the power plants supplying it (1.30 L/kWh excluding hydropower reservoir evaporation), against a national average of 4.28. That is below the national figure, and it is a property of the grid here rather than of any one building: a data center drawing 100 GWh a year in Ohio accounts for about 51.9 million gallons of power-plant water before it cools anything. All states ranked →
A data center's water use is roughly twelve times larger once the water evaporated at its power plants is counted. The Colorado River arithmetic → · how the water numbers work →