Just in: Duke Energy Ohio is lowering bills in Southwest Ohio

Duke Energy Ohio will soon slightly lower customers’ bills in Southwestern Ohio, thanks to lower supply costs.

The utility will reduce its residential power bills by about 3.6% beginning June 1, the company said Thursday.

“Typical” residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month and purchase electric supply from Duke Energy Ohio will pay about $114 per month beginning with their June bills.

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That’s down about $4.24 from May, Duke said.

“We work each day to deliver safe and reliable energy to our customers at the best possible price,” Amy Spiller, president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in Ohio and Kentucky, said in a release. “Our customers’ bills continue to be among the lowest in Ohio and well below the national average.”

The reason for the upcoming reduction? The price Duke Energy Ohio pays to acquire electricity for its customers who have chosen not to switch to a third-party energy company has dropped, the utility said.

Duke said it uses a competitive auction process to secure electricity for customers.

“As a whole, recent winning bids have been lower than past bids – leading to lower charges for the electric supply portion of monthly power bills,” Duke said.

Customers who receive electric supply from third-party energy companies will not be impacted by the upcoming reduction.

Duke said it makes no profit on the energy supply portion of customers’ bills. The cost of energy supply that Duke procures is “passed on directly to its customers,” the company said.

Electric supply accounts for about 48% of these customers’ monthly bills. The remainder is for electric delivery or how Duke delivers electricity to homes, maintaining poles and wires, handling infrastructure, billing and payment, and more.

Duke Energy Ohio delivers electricity to more than 650,000 homes across southwest Ohio, including Warren County, and its service territory stretches a bit into Preble and Montgomery counties, as well.

About 43.5% of Southwest Ohio customer rely on Duke Energy Ohio to acquire electric supply on their behalf and are the ones who will see lower rates beginning in June.

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