PUCO decision rejecting FirstEnergy reliability proposal was right call, Rep. David Thomas says

A prominent Republican lawmaker is praising the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s recent decision to reject FirstEnergy’s request to adopt more lenient electric reliability standards for customers served by its Ohio utilities.

The June 24 decision means existing reliability standards will remain in place for customers served by The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison.

According to PUCO, the proposal would have allowed the utilities to take longer to restore power following outages and, in some circumstances, experience more frequent outages before violating Ohio’s reliability standards.

FirstEnergy argued the existing standards did not adequately account for severe weather, aging infrastructure and other factors affecting system reliability.

“It was telling that nearly every member of the Energy Committee in the House signed onto our letter and made a strong statement against relaxing these standards,” state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, said in a release.

Earlier this year, Thomas and state Rep. Tristan Rader, D-Lakewood, led a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers urging regulators to reject the proposal, arguing Ohio consumers should not face lower reliability expectations after years of paying for grid improvements.

Consumer advocates argued customers have already paid more than $1 billion for reliability improvements and should not receive lower service standards in return.

The commission noted that it received significant opposition to the proposal from customers, stakeholders and local and state elected officials.

PUCO also cited ongoing grid modernization projects and the utilities’ commitments to improve reliability in the Barberton and Lakewood areas following investigations into frequent power outages in 2025.

Thomas said reliable electric service remains a major concern for residents and businesses across Ohio.

“This is a bipartisan issue that I hear about from residents all the time, and the number is growing,” Thomas said. “We must make our grid stronger, not weaken the standards.”

PUCO measures electric reliability using two systemwide metrics: the average number of outages customers experience annually and the average amount of time required to restore service following an outage.