Climate Corner: In Ohio, renewable sourced electricity can be an affordable choice

By Dawn Hewitt September 26, 2026

Most of the time I am grateful to live in Ohio. Ohio is one of only 13 states that allow consumers to choose their electricity supplier, and one of only 9 states to allow municipal energy aggregation. The city of Marietta, for example, is able to negotiate with electricity suppliers to get a good, fixed-rate deal for AEP customers within city limits. AEP owns and manages the grid in southeastern Ohio, and supplies electricity to those who don’t designate an alternative supplier. AEP’s standard service option (SSO) rate per kWh is 10.97 cents from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2026, and the City of Marietta’s aggregated electricity rate from October 2025 through December 2026 is 9.86 cents per kWh.

Even though Marietta negotiates good deals for electricity, I opted out long ago. Marietta’s aggregation supplier, Dynegy, sources 60.8% of its power from fossil fuels and 30.5% from nuclear. AEP’s SSO uses 59% fossil fuels and 32% nuclear. I’m willing to pay extra to power my home with sunshine and wind, but as it turns out, I pay less! My current electric rate per kWh is 8.91 cents. I’ve been paying that fixed rate since November 2025.

My house is 100% powered by renewable energy – even though I don’t have solar panels on my roof or my own private wind turbine. My electricity is unaffected by nighttime when the sun isn’t shining or when the wind isn’t blowing. Since my power comes from the same grid as everyone else in town, the actual electricity that flows into my outlets might well be generated by coal, oil, or natural gas (unfortunately). But when I pay my electric bill, I am paying for AEP to buy the amount of renewable energy I have consumed from Shipley Energy, who offered me that very good deal for 100% wind power.

I picked Shipley’s offer using “Apples to Apples” at Energychoice.ohio.gov. For years, each time my electricity supply contract expired I’ve searched that website for the best deal on fixed-rate renewable energy. I’ve consistently scored a contract that beats both the AEP SSO and Marietta’s aggregation rates — and I’m paying for pollution-free electricity.

Sadly, the City of Marietta does not offer a renewable-energy aggregation option. Some Ohio communities, including Athens, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, offer a 100% renewable aggregate option. Cleveland’s rate, from August 2026 to July 2027, is 10.457 cents per kWh – which is less expensive than AEP’s SSO and less than a penny more per kWh than the nonrenewable energy rate Marietta negotiated a year ago.

Of course, I have no idea what AEP’s SSO will be when the current rate expires in a few days, or what Marietta will be able to negotiate for its aggregation rate in January. No matter. I’m not going to power my house with yucky old dinosaurs as long as I have the choice to use clean, renewable energy – and it’s even at a competitive price!

My account with Shipley Energy will expire on Nov. 10, so once again I will have to compare and choose my electricity supplier. I’m going to wait until early November to make the decision, but as of late September, according to Apples to Apples, I could sign up for a three-month fixed rate of 8.89 cents per kWh for 100% renewable energy, which would get me through what are likely to be the coldest months of the year. I hope this offer is still available a month from now.

With such a short term fixed rate, I’ll have to go through this process again in January, which is a bit of a bother, but since the costs of renewable energy are falling, it’s possible that I’ll find another great deal. The costs of renewable energy are, indeed, falling, because unlike extraction of oil, gas, and coal, “extraction” of wind and sunlight is free. Furthermore, technological advances such as whole-house battery storage and plug-in “balcony” solar suggest that renewable energy options will continue to be even easier and cheaper. And unlike fossil fuel production, renewable energy isn’t subsidized by taxpayers. Even with an unfairly tilted playing field renewable energy is increasingly competitive.

I’m sorry that readers of this column in West Virginia can’t choose their electricity supplier – unless they generate their own. Mon Power, however, allows its customers to fund solar power in West Virginia for as little as $2 per month. For more information, see https://tinyurl.com/WV-solar. And if you think West Virginia should become the 14th state to allow energy consumers to choose their own electricity supplier, visit https://www.resausa.org, and encourage your state legislators to enable it!

Dawn Hewitt chairs the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, is managing editor of BWD magazine, and is active with Washington County for Safe Drinking Water.