AEP Effort to Bake Renewables Into Power Bills Hits a Roadblock

For American Electric Power Co., getting customers to pay for massive renewable energy projects is proving easier said than done.

Ohio regulators on Thursday rejected the utility owner’s request to include the costs of two new solar power plants in its customers’ rates. Last year, Texas refused to allow AEP to charge its customers for what would’ve been the nation’s largest wind farm, a decision that doomed the project.

After years of buying electricity from independently owned solar and wind power plants, AEP and other utilities have been increasingly trying to buy the facilities themselves and bake those ...