OG&E raising rates for its customers

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — The price you pay for electricity is going up. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission gave OG&E the "OK" to charge customers more.

Most customers will see their bills go up by about $13 each month.

OG&E says the money is needed to keep up with growing demand. Others argue OG&E doesn't need to charge customers more, pointing to hundreds of millions in profit.

"We notified our customers that we're adjusting the fuel charge on their bills," Aaron Cooper with OG&E said. "It's going to result in an increase of about $12.65 for the average residential customer."

OG&E says it is now paying more for fuel to generate electricity. As a result, customers will pay more too.

"Fuel is something we don't make any money on," Cooper said. "It's strictly a pass through costs. We go out on the market, we buy the fuel necessary to generate electricity, and then that's the cost we send on to our customers. So, we had spent more money than we had predicted because of those factors."

OG&E also points to an unusually warm start to winter.

"Because of the increase in prices and that extra use we weren't expecting in October, November, we've actually, you know, had to spend more money than we forecast," Cooper said.

AARP of Oklahoma, which fought the higher charge, sent a statement explaining why they believe added cost are not needed.

This order will make final OG&E’s saddling residential customers with a historic $126.6 million rate increase and raise utility bills more than $9 a month, an amount many customers simply cannot afford. OG&E began collecting this unprecedented rate hike on an interim basis on July 1, 2024, and the OCC approved OG&E’s interim rates on November 27, 2024. 

While AARP is disappointed in the overall outcome of the case, we are pleased our efforts were successful in rejecting OG&E’s proposed monthly customer charge increase from $13 to $21 a month. More than 3,700 AARP members called, emailed and signed petitions pleading with Corporation Commissioners not to approve yet another unreasonable rate hike from a company that made more than $425 million in profits last year.

While customers are forced to choose between buying food and medicine and keeping the lights on, OG&E, year after year, rakes in millions of dollars in profits and continues to raise rates with no end in sight. OG&E will be back at the trough with another rate case expected to start mid-year.

AARP Oklahoma State Director Sean Voskuhl

Ultimately, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission sided with OG&E.

"The OCC doesn't reimburse us," Cooper said. "They're just strictly a regulatory agency. They are a state agency. So, they review and regulate us. That's how that works."

We reached out to OCC but did not hear back.

OG&E says it is doing all it can to save customers money.

"We've increased our storage capacity, we've adjusted our purchasing practices so that we can try to get fuel at a better price, so that we can pass along those savings to our customer," Cooper said.

The extra charge went into effect March 1st.

OG&E says it will be spread out over nine months, and they will re-assess fuel costs this summer to see if more increases are needed or not.