Ohio lawmakers address energy supply and demand

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio lawmakers are working on new ways to make sure the lights stay on. On Thursday afternoon, they invited members of the Pennsylvania legislature to join them at the Ohio Statehouse to hear from key players in the energy industry, who said the demand for energy is rapidly growing.

“I hope that together governments at all levels will work to solve the upcoming crisis to avoid a life-threatening, catastrophic failure to our grid,” Chair of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee Representative Dick Stein (R-Norwalk) said.

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Ranking member of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee Representative Casey Weinstein (D-Hudson) said people should not worry.

“We’re in a good spot right now, both for today and in the future and with so many new forms of energy coming online along with storage,” Weinstein said.

Ohio and Pennsylvania generate more than 40% of the energy between the 13 states in our region, but Stein said energy usage is growing faster than we can produce it. For example, in the greater Columbus area it is projected that energy usage will more than double within the next five to seven years.

“We’re going to have to start planning for the new energy economy that’s coming to Ohio,” Ranking member of the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee Kent Smith (D-Euclid) said.

Stein said the state can’t keep up without bringing additional energy assets closer to Ohio, he said it is a “consequence” of early plant retirements.

“Is it imminent? No. Is it of a near term concern? As you heard in the hearing, it’s a 5-7-9-year cycle, and because of that cycle we need to make sure we play in now and not wait for 5-7 years and say, ‘now what do we do,’” Stein said.

Weinstein said we need to look at a new 21st century energy policy.

“I want to look at the future, where the demand is, where affordability is, and that’s clearly in renewables. Potentially nuclear energy, modular nuclear,” he said.

Right now, more than half of the energy in the state is produced by natural gas but some experts say the new energy supply is lending itself more to renewable resources like wind and solar.

“We want to move towards sustainability. To do that, though, you need a certain amount of dispatchable generation to bail us out,” Stein said. “It is an ‘all of the above’ strategy. We need more transmission, we need more dispatchable thermal generation and, someday, hopefully, advanced nuclear.”

But at the same time, some industry experts worry that renewables cannot “replace reliables” like natural gas or coal, as they are not yet consistent enough yet, but Smith said there is a solution.

“The wind doesn’t always blow, and the sun doesn’t always shine, which is why battery storage is crucial to any of the new energy economy,” Smith said. “Renewables need to play a larger role than they do. The investment is coming into the renewable space because there are no fuel costs.”

Stein said they are going to start work-shopping an “all of the above” approach to address energy usage in Ohio but said he does not expect anything to be signed into law before the end of the year.

“Not just keeping the lights on, but keeping costs affordable,” Stein said.

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