Lucas County residents’ electric meters may not be ticking up, but the bills they receive are increasing.

The cost of electricity has risen over the past three years because of the explosion of power-hungry data centers across the country. However, local customers have been protected from those soaring prices by the Northwest Ohio Aggregation Coalition, which negotiates electric supply rates on behalf of its 125,000 customers.

The coalition negotiated a locked-in price in 2022 — before AI models became available to the public and before tech companies started constructing hyperscale data centers. But the coalition’s three-year contract expired in May, and local prices are suddenly reflecting the market conditions.

Mark Frye, president of Palmer Energy and the coalition’s designated cons

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