A photo voltaic venture in Ohio by EDF Renewables.
The Ohio Senate unanimously handed an overhaul of the state’s power coverage by way of House Bill 15 on April 30, 2025, and the Ohio Home later the identical day concurred by a vote of 94 to 2. The laws now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine for his approval.
An earlier model of the invoice included a group power pilot program that may have included photo voltaic, however that provision didn’t make it to the ultimate laws.
H.B. 15, together with its companion invoice, Senate Invoice 2, proposed wholesale modifications to Ohio’s method to power. Beneath is a abstract of a number of the invoice’s key provisions by regulation agency Bricker Graydon:
- Tax reform starting in tax yr 2027:
- Decreases the Tangible Private Property (TPP) tax on new technology and power conversion tools to 7% from 25%.
- Drops the TPP on new transmission, distribution, and pipeline infrastructure to 25%.
- Current Fee in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements proceed.
- Power storage can be handled as technology for functions of the TPP.
- Precedence Funding Areas (PIA)
- Native communities can apply to the Division of Improvement to designate areas as a PIA. Brownfields and former mine websites are eligible for PIA designation.
- PIA eligible initiatives will be awarded as much as $10 million from the Brownfield Remediation Program.
- PIA initiatives obtain expedited evaluation by the OPSB and a TPP tax exemption on transmission, distribution, and pipeline infrastructure for 5 years.
- Permits buyer refunds for charges later decided to be unlawful. Refunds are issued from the date the Ohio Supreme Court docket holds {that a} price was unlawful.
- Repeals coal subsidies to the Ohio Valley Electrical Firm (OVEC) instantly upon the invoice changing into efficient.
- Repeals the restricted photo voltaic subsidies created by H.B. 6 in 2019. Redirects funds collected however not but remitted to qualifying photo voltaic initiatives to a brand new fund referred to as the Faculty Power Efficiency Contracting Mortgage Fund. This new fund, to be administered by the Ohio Amenities Development Fee, offers loans to pay for power conservation, measure installment contracts and energy-saving measure contracts. This consists of set up of photo voltaic panels.
- Repeals Electrical Safety Plans and requires Electrical Distribution Utilities (EDUs) to file price instances each 3 years.
- PUCO “shot clocks” for price instances.
- Requires a 360-day time interval for price instances as soon as an software has been filed.
- Employees stories are required to be accomplished in 180 days.
- Exempts new discovery after 215 days.
- The Ohio Energy Siting Board is required to finish all instances inside 150 days after an software is deemed full.
- Expands the alternatives for behind-the-meter technology.
- Requires EDUs to publish capability maps and warmth maps of their techniques.
- Incorporates definitions of “superior transmission applied sciences,” “superior conductor” and provisions designed to each research and promote the utilization of “grid-enhancing applied sciences,” in any other case often called GETs.
The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Motion Fund praised the laws in a press release by Nolan Rutschilling, managing director of power coverage:
“The OEC Motion Fund, our members, and our companions have been combating for years to eradicate the OVEC Coal Bailout created by the Home Invoice 6 corruption scandal, and to create extra equitable, clear regulation of electrical utilities. Right this moment, we earned a major victory for clear air, utility accountability, and Ohioans involved with rising electrical payments. This laws is imperfect, however it’s an power coverage win for on a regular basis Ohioans, not Fortune 500 utility firms and their CEOs,” Rutschilling mentioned.
“This laws will higher permit the OEC Motion Fund and our companions to proceed our battle for a cleaner, extra dependable, and inexpensive power system, and it’s the results of tireless work from Ohio’s environmental and power justice advocates. We’ve way more work to do, however at the moment, Ohio took a step in direction of a extra equitable power coverage, and we applaud the Ohio legislature for this progress. We encourage Governor DeWine to signal this invoice instantly,” he continued.
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