To amend section 4928.02 and to enact sections 1.66, 519.216, 4934.01, 4934.011, 4934.04, 4934.05, 4934.06, 4934.07, 4934.071, 4934.072, 4934.08, 4934.09, 4934.10, 4934.11, 4934.12, 4934.13, 4934.14, 4934.15, 4934.16, 4934.17, 4934.18, 4934.20, 4934.21, 4934.23, 4934.25, 4934.26, 4934.27, 4934.35, 4934.36, 4934.37, and 4934.38 of the Revised Code to establish the community energy program and pilot program and to define electricity measurement in alternating current.
SB231 establishes a new “community energy” framework in Ohio law and directs the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to create a statewide pilot program. The bill defines a community energy facility as a local generation project—typically solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, hydroelectric, microturbine, natural gas, energy storage, or fuel cell—serving at least three subscribers and meeting size, ownership, and location limits. It also defines subscribers, bill credits, guaranteed savings, net crediting, and related terms, and it clarifies that electricity measurements in the Revised Code are to be understood as alternating current.
The bill amends the state’s electric policy statute to expressly encourage community energy facilities, establish the pilot program, and require consumer protections and program evaluations. PUCO would certify up to 1,500 megawatts of community energy facilities statewide, with 1,000 megawatts generally available through annual allocations and 500 megawatts reserved for distressed sites and commercial or public-sector rooftops. The bill sets rules for bill credits, interconnection, tariff updates, decommissioning, financial assurance, and reporting back to the General Assembly after the program has been operating for four years.
SB231 would add a new chapter of law governing community energy facilities and would modify Ohio’s existing retail electric service policy to support distributed generation and customer participation. It would require electric distribution utilities to interconnect qualifying facilities, provide bill credits to subscribers, and avoid discriminatory fees or treatment. It also creates township-level local review and potential veto authority through public meetings and township trustee resolutions, while authorizing PUCO rulemaking on certification, consumer disclosures, cost recovery, and program administration. The bill would affect electric utilities, community energy developers, subscribers, township governments, the Department of Development, and PUCO, and it would also create a brownfield remediation grant pathway for certain projects.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall posture appears supportive of expanding community solar and other local energy projects, while trying to balance that expansion with consumer protections and local control. The bill’s detailed framework suggests an effort to make the market financeable and administratively workable rather than simply authorizing projects without oversight. No formal vote history or transcript record is provided here, so there is no documented public sentiment beyond the bill’s policy design.
The main likely points of contention are local siting authority, utility cost recovery, and the scope of who benefits from the program. Township trustees are given the ability to prohibit or limit facilities after a public meeting, which suggests concern about land use, community impacts, and local control. Utilities may also object to mandatory interconnection, bill-credit requirements, and limits on recovering costs, while supporters are likely to emphasize guaranteed savings, consumer choice, and grid benefits. Another likely issue is the exclusion of large industrial customers from participation and cost responsibility, along with the bill’s restrictions on facility size, subscriber shares, and the requirement that costs not be cross-subsidized across customer classes.