OG&E asks to boost average monthly rate $23.88

Jeff Elkins

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. is asking the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to approve a rate increase that would add $23.88 to the average residential customer’s monthly bill. However, that figure is subject to change through negotiations and the regulatory review process.

The company seeks to modify its retail electric rates, charges and tariffs. The Wednesday, Sept. 30, filing initiates a multimonth review that will include testimony from multiple parties before an administrative law judge. The filing states that the utility is seeking the increase to recover costs associated with capital investments made since its last general rate case, which was filed in December 2023 and approved in November 2024.

Attorneys for the utility state in the filing that the applicant isn’t earning sufficient operating income to produce a fair and reasonable return on capital or a fair and reasonable return on the value of its plant, property and other assets.

A company release states that over the last three years, system reliability has improved every year, reaching 99.96% in 2025 and outpacing the

Oklahoma Gas and Electric crews work in downtown Norman on July 6.

DOUG HOKE/THE OKLAHOMAN

national average. However, the release states that strengthening the grid for customers is “no longer possible at current rates set three years ago.”

Christi Woodworth, chief communications officer for OG&E, said the commission process typically takes about six months. Commission rules allow 180 days for the agency to issue an order, and if no order is issued within that time frame, the utility may implement interim rates while awaiting a final decision. In the last rate review, Woodworth said OG&E implemented interim rates in July 2024.

“We did not receive a final order until a few months after that, but it was the exact same as our interim rate,” Woodworth said. “So we had enough information by the time we got to that sixmonth time period that we were comfortable implementing those rates, and that the order would follow, and it did.”

Woodworth said the earliest that customers could see an increase in their bills would be in six months unless the commission issues an order before then.

The rate request includes costs for Horseshoe Lake Units 11 and 12, which Woodworth said are complete, were finished early and came in $12 million under budget. A release states that bringing the units online early allowed OG&E to avoid between $9 million and $16 million in winter capacity purchases for 2026-27.

The review also proposes new customer programs, including an expanded senior discount and low-income assistance, as well as a pilot program, more flexibility for payment dates and prepaid options.

OG&E has proposed an $85 annual senior discount for all customers age 65 and older, not just SmartHours customers. Additionally, the proposal includes expanding a $13 monthly discount to more income-qualified customers, an Arrearage Management Pilot Program to help customers stay connected while forgiving a portion of past-due balances, and a deposit-free payment option designed to give customers more flexibility in managing their bills.

OG&E’s request in this review totals $395 million.

OG&E’s initial request gives consumer group ‘sticker shock’

AARP Oklahoma, a nonprofit organization serving people age 50 and older, warns that OG&E’s latest proposed rate hike will deliver a painful jolt to household budgets, leaving vulnerable seniors and families blindsided by their next monthly utility bills.

AARP is one of the intervenors in the rate case. Sean Voskuhl, state director of AARP Oklahoma, said the sticker shock of a nearly $24 a month increase will hurt many OG&E customers, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time with Oklahoma already squeezed by higher prices at the grocery story, the pharmacy and the gas pump.

“For individuals on fixed incomes, that’s more than $280 a year they simply don’t have,” Voskuhl said. “Electricity isn’t optional. Residential customers can’t cut back on keeping the lights on, the air running in the summer or the heat on in winter. For many older Oklahomans, power also keeps medical equipment running and keeps them safe in extreme weather.”