Bipartisan House committee members passed legislation Wednesday that would regulate submetering companies for the first time in Ohio – an effort designed to ease utility bills for tens of thousands of apartment renters around the state that critics say are padded with questionable costs.
The submetering industry operates by striking deals with landlords. Behind a building’s “master meter,” submetering companies install their own hardware to track consumption in individual units. The submetering companies then allocate utility use from each unit, and bill them accordingly.
The companies buy water, gas and electricity at a discounted commercial rate and re-sell it to submetered tenants at the standard residential rate. They then pocket the difference in exchange for the workload they take off the landlord.
However, submetered customers lack the ability to shop for better prices, access bill pay assistance programs, or seek recourse before state regulators about their bills like traditional utility customers can. They can also be charged via unregulated bill practices, like fees for electricity, water, heat and air conditioning in common spaces, or general opacity in invoice documents.
And examples abound of customers who blame submeterers for runaway utility bills that don’t seem to align with personal consumption. For instance, Rep. Sean Brennan, a Parma Democrat who has pushed for a more aggressive crackdown against the industry, sent a copy of one submetered tenant’s February 2026 bill for $661 in charges to a one-bedroom apartment.
A central Ohio woman filed written testimony with the House Energy committee last month, telling lawmakers that she was charged $331 for electricity and $45 for water at her 1,300 square-foot apartment in a recent one-month billing cycle,.
“The problem is systemic: [Nationwide Energy Partners] is not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio,” wrote Jessica Wilkins-Bibbs. “This means consumers like me lack the protections that regulated utilities such as AEP provide – protections that ensure fair rates, transparency, and dispute resolution. Without regulation, residents are vulnerable to unpredictable and excessive charges.”
‘Every General Assembly, there has just been a breakdown’
Rep. Dave Thomas, a young Republican who sponsored House Bill 173, said Columbus lawmakers have allowed the industry to run amok, unregulated over the years. He said his compromise bill gives everyone something, with tenants getting the best deal. For the first time, they’ll have a guarantee in law that they’re not charged more per kilowatt-hour than the standard service offer provided by the local electric utility.
“This is an industry that has been a problem since I was in high school,” he said in an interview before the vote. “Every General Assembly, there has just been a breakdown, or it just hasn’t worked, whatever attempts. We believe this will be the first time that one has been voted out of the House.”
Thomas’ approach divided the coalition of the loudest critics against submeterers.
On the one hand, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, a state agency that advocates in legal and legislative affairs on behalf of ratepayers, supports the latest version of the bill after Thomas heeded several requested changes.
“Submetered consumers deserve transparency, fair pricing, and the same consumer protections available to consumers of regulated utilities,” said Maureen Willis, the agency’s director, in a statement. “House Bill 173 moves Ohio closer to ensuring that where you live does not determine whether you are protected.”
But Democrats on the House Energy Committee opposed it, arguing the bill fails to shield customers from hidden costs or even put them on level ground with traditional utility customers. More broadly, they say there’s no need for the middleman industry of submeterers to exist as it only increases costs to captive customers without providing any value.
American Electric Power, the utility serving the central Ohio region and its hotbed of submetered apartments, has lobbied against the bill at the statehouse. It’s also fighting Nationwide Energy Partners – one of the biggest submeterers in the game – at the Ohio Supreme Court. The justices heard oral arguments in June on AEP’s lawsuit effectively seeking to force the PUCO to regulate submetering companies as public utilities and have yet to issue a final ruling.
Nationwide Energy Partners, which has no relationship with the Columbus-based insurer, has steadily pushed for the bill over 12 committee hearings and counting. The company has hired two law firms to advance its agenda in Columbus. And one of those firms advertises to clients that its former partner is now the chief of staff to the House Speaker, and one of its current members was a legislative aide to the current Senate President.
What the bill does
Submetering in Ohio first came to public view after the Columbus Dispatch published a series of articles in 2013 predominantly focused on the little-known Nationwide Energy Partners, its customers’ sky-high electric costs, and the close relationship between the submetering company and the developers of apartment complexes that allow submeterers in.
Despite various efforts, lawmakers have done nothing as the industry has captured more and more customers. A Nationwide Energy Partners spokesperson said last year that the company bills 34,000 units across 168 complexes in Ohio for electricity and 33,000 units over 171 complexes for water. The industry is active at least in Cincinnati as well, and the certainty of permissive legislation would likely spur growth.
A Nationwide Energy Partners lobbyist didn’t respond to an interview request.
Even though submeterers bill tenants for their utility costs each month, courts and regulators have deemed them non-utility companies, meaning their customers don’t get the legal protections that customers of utility companies do.
House Bill 173 would give submeterers explicit permission to operate in Ohio. However, it would forbid them from charging customers a price greater than the price given to utility customers in their standard service offer. And it would require the companies to clearly delineate all charges, including a kilowatt-per-hour price and fees for common areas.
Submetered customers would get some, but not all, protections of traditional utility customers.
For instance, customers for the first time would be eligible to use the Home Energy Assistance Program, a one-time payment program, to pay off utility debts.
But submetering companies, unlike utilities, wouldn’t need to administer programs that allow low-income-earning ratepayers to pay a fixed percentage of their income (known as PIPP) instead of the full bill to the company.
Customers also wouldn’t be able to shop through different electric providers for cheaper costs, as all traditional utility customers can do.
‘Should this industry even exist?’
In recent comments to lawmakers, Frank Strigari, a lobbyist for AEP, asked lawmakers to think about what they’re locking in to state law. They’re accepting into the system a class of customers that won’t get the same legal protections that most customers have enjoyed for decades.
And even if customers aren’t submetered yet, all apartment tenants could be unilaterally “converted” by their landlords, he said.
(Nationwide Energy Partners isn’t the only one seeking politically connected lobbyists – Strigari was previously an attorney for then-Senate President Matt Huffman.)
Democrats sided with AEP. In interviews, Rep. Sean Brennan, of Parma, said the bill leaves too much room for submeterers to exploit customers. He said submeterers will find ways to stick customers with dubious costs, as evidenced by Nationwide Energy Partners’ heavy lobbying for it. He said he’s worried the bill is playing whack-a-mole, and more suspect costs will pop up through its loopholes.
Rep. Tristan Rader, of Lakewood, said the bill probably improves the status quo for tenants but could hold the door open for submetering to expand.
“At the end of the day, should this industry even exist? I’m not so sure,” he said.
The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel didn’t support early drafts of the bill. But with the addition of cost caps, HEAP payments, bill transparency and other items, the agency came around, said spokesperson Merrilee Embs.
“For more than a decade, the Consumers’ Counsel has advocated for meaningful safeguards for submetered utility consumers in Ohio,” she said. “This legislation represents the strongest set of enforceable protections we have seen to date. These reforms will provide immediate benefits to Ohio families who currently receive submetered utility bills with far too little oversight.”