The Straight Answer: You Can Switch — It Usually Doesn't Pay
Yes, you can choose your electricity provider in Ohio. It's one of the most open retail electricity markets in the country: your utility still owns the wires and sends the bill, but the generation half of that bill is open to competition — dozens of certified suppliers, typically 40 to 80 residential offers in each utility territory at any given time.
Now the part the postcards and the guy at your door leave out: for most Ohio households, switching loses money. Researchers at Ohio State University's John Glenn College analyzed more than 2 million retail offers made in Ohio between 2014 and 2023 and found that 12-month fixed-rate offers — the standard product most shoppers pick — were priced above the default utility rate 72 percent of the time. Across all customers of retail marketers, Ohioans collectively overpaid by more than $2 billion. There is one consistent exception: government aggregation, the community-negotiated deals many Ohio cities and counties run — including NOPEC, the largest in the nation. If your community offers one, that's usually the deal worth having. The rest of this page is the detail — and the five-minute check to run before you sign anything.
How Ohio's Market Actually Works
Your electric bill has two halves. Delivery — poles, wires, meters, the crews who show up after a storm — stays with your regulated utility no matter what you do. Generation — the electricity itself — is the part you can shop.
Do nothing and you get the Standard Service Offer (SSO): the default generation rate your utility procures through competitive auctions in which wholesale suppliers bid to serve default customers. That auction matters — it means the "do nothing" price is already a market price, which is exactly why it's so hard to beat. The SSO shows up on your bill as the Price to Compare, in cents per kilowatt-hour. That one number is the entire game: below it an offer saves you money, above it it costs you — everything else is marketing.
The official shopping site is Energy Choice Ohio, run by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). Its "Apples to Apples" charts list every certified supplier's current residential offers in your utility territory — rate, term, fixed or variable, monthly fees, early-termination fee. Use it instead of commercial comparison sites — nobody there earns a commission on your click.
What Electricity Costs in Ohio
Ohio households paid an average of 16.3¢ per kilowatt-hour as of April 2025, per the US Energy Information Administration. The chart below shows federal EIA data from 1990 through 2025, plus a projection — the backdrop for every decision on this page.
Full Ohio electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Ohio (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 8.1 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 8.2 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 8.2 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 8.4 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 8.6 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 8.6 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 8.6 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 8.6 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 8.7 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 8.7 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 8.6 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 8.4 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 8.2 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 8.3 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 8.5 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 8.5 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 9.3 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 9.6 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 10.1 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 10.7 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 11.3 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 11.4 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 11.8 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 12.0 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 12.8 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 12.5 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 12.6 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 12.6 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 12.4 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 12.3 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 12.8 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 13.9 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 15.4 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 16.0 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 17.0 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
Two takeaways. First, the Price to Compare is a moving target: the SSO resets as procurement auctions roll over, so a retail offer that beat the default last year can quietly become a loser this year — one more reason a supplier contract needs an end-date reminder, not a set-and-forget signature. Second, when the long-run trend points up, the cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one you never buy. Air sealing, tuning the heating and cooling that dominates an Ohio winter bill, and — for the right roof — rooftop solar will do more for most households than any supplier switch ever will.
The $2 Billion Overpayment
The Ohio State study deserves its own section, because it's the largest reality check ever run on this market. The John Glenn College of Public Affairs team compared each of the 2 million-plus offers (2014–2023) against the utility default rate in effect at the time. The findings:
- 12-month fixed-rate offers — the bread-and-butter retail product — were priced above the SSO 72 percent of the time.
- Customers of retail energy marketers collectively overpaid by more than $2 billion over the study period.
That's not "some shoppers chose badly." In roughly three out of four cases, the advertised deal was worse than doing nothing at all. The economics explain why: the SSO comes out of a competitive wholesale auction with no marketing budget, while a retail marketer has canvassers, commissions, and customer churn to pay for. That money comes from you.
The Exception: Government Aggregation and NOPEC
One form of switching has a genuinely good record in Ohio: government aggregation, where a city, township, or county negotiates a bulk generation rate for its residents. Ohio does more of this than any other state — NOPEC, the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, is the largest government aggregation in the country — and the same OSU research that condemned individual retail offers found aggregation is the exception that often does save.
The logic is straightforward: an aggregation buys for an entire community at once, with no sales force and no commissions, so there's very little markup to recover. Many Ohio aggregations are opt-out — if your community has voted one in, you may already be enrolled, and the supplier name on your bill will tell you. Treat it like any other offer, just with better odds — "often saves" is not "always saves," so check its current rate against your Price to Compare the same way.
The Traps: How to Spot a Bad Apple
Ohio's retail market has produced enough bad behavior that the state's residential utility advocate, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, runs a standing consumer campaign called "How to Spot a Bad Apple" — a pointed play on the official Apples to Apples charts — aimed mostly at door-to-door sales. The recurring plays:
- The utility impostor. Someone at your door implies they're "from the electric company" and needs to "check your bill." Your actual utility does not send people to do this. What they want is the account number printed on your bill — that's what it takes to switch you.
- The teaser rate. A low introductory price that expires and renews onto a month-to-month rate that no longer has to beat anything. The Consumers' Counsel specifically warns about teaser offers renewing at month-to-month prices — read every renewal letter and re-run the Price to Compare test.
- The fee sandwich. A per-kilowatt-hour rate that squeaks under the Price to Compare, plus a monthly fee and an early-termination fee that put the true cost back over it. The Apples to Apples charts list fees for exactly this reason — compare the all-in cost, not the headline rate.
If You Do Shop: The Five-Minute Checklist
Some offers do beat the SSO, and an aggregation tilts the odds in your favor. Run this list before signing anything:
- Find your Price to Compare on your current utility bill. This month's number. Write it down.
- Shop only at energychoice.ohio.gov — the PUCO-run Apples to Apples charts. If an offer arrived by mail, phone, or door, find that same supplier and plan on the chart before believing a word of it.
- Compare all-in: rate, monthly fee, early-termination fee, and whether the rate is fixed for the full term or variable. Variable can rise; fixed means you check what happens at renewal.
- Confirm the supplier is PUCO-certified. The state charts only list certified suppliers — one more reason to start there.
- Calendar the contract end date the day you sign, with a reminder a few weeks ahead, so you can re-shop or fall back to the SSO instead of rolling onto a month-to-month rate.
- Never sign at the door. A legitimate offer will still exist tomorrow, after you've checked it against the chart.
And keep the whole exercise in perspective: a supplier changes the price of your kilowatt-hours, not what happens inside your walls. For the panel, the breakers, grounding, and the wiring problems that actually put homes at risk, see our electrical guide.
Sources
Figures on this page are 2026-current and come from primary sources. Market structure, supplier offers, and Price to Compare: Energy Choice Ohio (PUCO) — Apples to Apples. Offer-pricing study (2M+ offers, 2014–2023; 72 percent priced above the SSO; $2B+ collective overpayment): Ohio State University, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, via Ohio State News. Consumer alerts and the "How to Spot a Bad Apple" campaign: Ohio Consumers' Counsel. Average residential rate (16.3¢ per kWh, April 2025) and the historical series in the chart: US EIA, Electric Power Monthly. We review these figures every six months.