Why are electric co-ops not participating in deregulation?
The new deregulation law does not require the electric cooperatives in Ohio to participate in the electric deregulation program. When drafting the new law, Ohio’s legislators recognized that electric cooperatives are special. Electric cooperatives provide electricity at the lowest possible cost on a not-for-profit basis. Any profits earned over and above operating costs are returned to cooperative members in the form of capital credits, unlike investor-owned utilities wanting to earn as much profit as possible for their investors. Because cooperatives are community-based organizations controlled by the people they serve, they have never been under PUCO regulation.
