AEP Ohio’s No. 1 goal, every single day, is to provide the safe and reliable power you depend on. Here’s a look at some of the ways we’re doing that.
Pole Position: Protecting Ospreys and Your Power
We love wildlife and we want to keep them safe, but sometimes critters need a little encouragement on the best places to call home.
When investigating the cause of a recent outage near Pickerington, our crews discovered that an osprey nest built on top of our utility pole had fallen into our equipment. No eggs or birds were harmed, but 5,000 customers lost power. See how our teams came up with a solution to protect both our customers’ power and these large birds of prey.
Using Drones for Safe, Efficient Inspections
To stay ahead of potential issues that could affect your service, AEP Ohio crews and contractors are constantly inspecting the power lines, equipment and poles that bring electricity to your home or business. This year, we’re using aerial drone technology for these inspections to get the best view of our equipment. Drones can help our teams access hard-to-reach areas while providing an up-close look at our equipment to help identify where maintenance, repairs or updates are needed.
When it’s time for the circuit that brings your home or business power to be inspected, you’ll receive an automated phone call and email if we have your contact information on file. Update your info at AEPOhio.com/Account/Settings.
Right Tree, Right Place
AEP Ohio forestry crews inspect and maintain trees along every distribution circuit across the company’s 61-county service territory on a rotating four-year schedule. Since implementing this proactive trimming and removal cycle in 2009, the company has seen tree-related outages decline by 93%.
As temperatures warm up, many people are heading outdoors to refresh their landscaping. Before you fall in love with that cute sapling, remember that picking the right tree for the right place can help prevent power outages. Check out tips for choosing a tree, plus our new printable field guide, before you head to your local nursery.
And don’t forget: April is National Safe Digging Month. Always call 811 or visit Ohio811.org at least 48 hours before starting any project that involves digging.
Thanks for keeping us up to date and being transparent on operations. Does AEP own nuclear plants and if not why.
Hi Edwin. Thanks for the kind words! Our parent company, American Electric Power, does, but AEP Ohio is prohibited by Ohio law from owning generation.
Where would we be without electricity? I hate to think of the life we would be leading. Light from the sun would be the our way. Up with the sun, bed close to sunset. Candles was expensive, they were only used at special times. I am very, very glad for electricity and the life we live today.
Help me open my account because I wanna make a payment today like I’m gonna call like at 10 a.m because I wanna make a payment today
Hi Bendjy. We hope you were able to get your account open. If you haven’t yet, please give our Customer Solutions team a call at 800-672-2231 and they will be happy to help you out.
AEP is a MONOPOLY. They have everyone by the balls. Constant rate increases claiming for upgrades, only for the company to release information like their CEO made 36.5 million last year. The highest paid utility executive in the entire COUNTRY.
Or to show how they make record PROFITS in ONE QUARTER. Billions of dollars going to this company. The wind blows too hard and my power goes out. The grid gets overloaded in summer time with AC usage, electric vehicle charging and more. And yet the consumer is forced to go along with the increases while you bastards sit back and line your pockets.
This is wrong. Families are struggling and you guys are rolling in the cash.
GREED, GLUTTONY, PRIDE, LUST, ENVY, WRATH and SLOTH. How many do you identify yourself with Mr. CEO?
Unfortunately, our power goes out frequently in our area – Muirfield, Dublin area, so I’m noy a big fan of AEP. Funny how when our power goes out as often as it does and considering all the hassle that goes along with it – blown circuits, resetting clocks, manually lifting garage doors to exit/enter, and on and on, we never see a discount on our bill. It just keeps going up. Sad and disappointing.
Harry, we’re sorry to hear that you’ve experienced frequent outages. Please know we’re actively working on improving reliability in your area. You also are not charged while your power is out.
If your bill seems to keep increasing, one thing you can check is whether your generation supply rate has gone up lately. Ohioans can choose where they get their generation from: either through AEP Ohio’s Standard Service Offer rate or a competitive retail electric service (CRES) provider. Some CRES providers’ rates are variable or may increase when a promotional rate expires. You can compare rates at the PUCO’s Apples to Apples page. AEP Ohio’s price to compare is $0.0994/kWh. If you select a CRES provider, make sure to consider the offer’s rate type, term length and any fees, in addition to the rate itself.
Thanks for keeping us all safe and your concern for the wildlife as well.
And yes, some trees can grow way to tall and present a problem to power lines.
The only problem I have now is why you do not always inform your customers what caused a particular outage. We need to know and also be provided with better
estimates of when our power will be restored for our area. The last power outage left us with no heat or ability to cook; and we had no idea what caused it or when it would be back. We are in Gahanna.
Thank you.
Hi Judy. We’re sorry that you recently experienced an outage and even more sorry that you were not as informed as you’d have preferred. If you’re not already, please enroll in outage notifications at AEPOhio.com/Alerts. These automatic text or email alerts let you know if your home or business is experiencing an outage and the expected restoration time, as soon as it’s known.