Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel

Residential Utility Consumer Benefits
1976 - 1993

2004 - Present | 1994 - 2003 | 1976-1993

During the first 16 years the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel saved residential customers nearly $2.6 billion. The monetary savings as well as the additional benefits included:

  • Intervention in more than 1,200 cases representing Ohio's residential consumers
  • Resolution of 34,000 individual utility consumer complaints
  • Assistance to hundreds of Ohio local governments in public utility cases
  • Advocacy at the federal level of government on issues affecting Ohio utility consumers
  • Aid and support to Ohio's state and federal legislators to fashion pro-consumer laws
  • Establishment of lasting legal precedents favorable to consumers
  • Development of innovative options for improving regulation and addressing emerging utility issues
  • $33 million saved in 1980 after a federal appeals court sides with the OCC's contention that Ohio consumers should not pay for a risky and costly coal gasification plant in North Dakota
  • A landmark 1981 decision - the Ohio Supreme Court accepted the OCC's view that consumers should not pay for canceled power plants and other aborted utility investments
  • OCC legal victories in 1984 at the Ohio Supreme Court led to refunds for Columbus and Southern Ohio electric customers, a refund and rate reduction for Cincinnati Bell customers and a decision reaffirming state authority to set telephone depreciation rates
  • The OCC played a leading role in a 1985 settlement with Columbia Gas Transmission which led to savings of $600 million for Ohio gas consumers. At that time, the pact may have produced the largest single gas rate decrease in U.S. history
  • The OCC helped negotiate an agreement in 1985 that forced the owners of the Zimmer power plant to absorb more than $870 million, half of the facility's total cost, because of mismanagement and construction flaws
  • Columbia Gas of Ohio and the OCC reach an agreement in January 1986 calling for a rate reduction and a rate freeze that produced savings of at least $21 million for the utility's 2 million residential customers
  • The OCC secured $568 million in refunds for Northeast Ohio residents as a result of utility mismanagement and cost overruns at the Perry nuclear power plant
  • Consumers of Toledo Edison and Cleveland Electric Illuminating were refunded $61.3 million in 1987 because state regulators ruled that the June 1985 accident that shut down the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant was caused by utility mismanagement
  • Nearly $140 million was returned to natural gas consumers as a result of a September 1993 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling was related to a July 1991 bankruptcy filing of Columbia Gas Transmission
Please Note:

OCC has had to cancel many of its services, including its consumer call center, due to recent budget cuts. We realize you may continue to need assistance with your utility services. OCC's website provides free access to publications and resources.

You may seek assistance with utility complaints from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio:
800-686-7826. For complaints about non-utility related services, you may call the Ohio Attorney General
at 800-282-0515.

Information believed accurate but not guaranteed.
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The Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel is an equal opportunity employer and provider of services.
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