AEP Ohio released an annual report to state regulators that details how reliable the utility was in 2024.
The report shows the company hit one of the standards, but fell short on another.
The state measures reliability performance for companies like AEP in two ways: how many power outages customers experience and how long those power outages last.
Customers in AEP Ohio’s system experienced about one outage last year. The company met that metric.
The average amount of time an AEP Ohio customer's outage lasted was longer than the standards set by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Outages should have averaged 148 minutes or less, but they lasted nearly 100 minutes longer than that. Even excluding major weather events, the company's outages were still 10 minutes longer per outage than regulators wanted.
AEP Ohio’s outages in 2024 lasted about 30 minutes longer than the 2023 national average.
AEP Ohio had asked PUCO regulators in 2022 to let them have longer outages that lasted more frequently, but state regulators made them slightly more stringent in 2024.
New standards took effect at the beginning of this year. Standards now require outages in 2025 to last 146 minutes or less, excluding major weather events.
Utilities that miss the goal must file an action plan with the state.
AEP Ohio says to improve their metrics, the utility company will focus on, "finding efficiency in operational practices, effective vegetation management (especially with respect to outside of right-of-way trees), distribution infrastructure investments, and reliance on data analytics, drone inspections, and other advanced distribution assessment techniques..."
