Our power, our future:
A blueprint for Cleveland Public Power Reform

Summary

Cleveland has something that most cities don’t -- a municipally-owned utility that answers to the people, not shareholders. Cleveland Public Power (CPP) is controlled directly by the people of Cleveland through the Mayor and City Council. With the right reforms, Cleveland Public Power can be a powerful tool for the City to deliver affordable, reliable, and clean power while driving equitable local economic development.

Unrealized potential

Despite this potential, Cleveland Public Power faces significant challenges. Current power purchase contracts are a significant burden on ratepayers and the environment. CPP faces a significant maintenance backlog, which threatens grid reliability and increases costs. And, the utility’s lack of transparency and flexibility harms customers.

Future promise

CPP has the potential to become a national leader in delivering affordable, reliable, and clean energy, while showing how public ownership can drive both community benefits and environmental progress. This reform blueprint outlines the specific policy improvements needed to meet this moment. We believe CPP can make Cleveland more economically and environmentally resilient by acting on four key principles:

  • Community-led: CPP should listen to us, plan with us, and work with us.

  • Affordable: CPP should enable residents and businesses to meet their other needs while keeping the lights on.

  • Reliable: CPP should invest in a modern, resilient distribution system and a capable,
    dedicated staff so we always have power when we need it.

  • Clean and green: CPP should lead Cleveland’s transition to clean, renewable energy, good jobs, and a healthy future, meeting the goal of 100% clean energy supply by 2050.

The platform’s proposals are designed to be attainable and actionable, falling within the authority of Cleveland’s elected leaders to legislate and influence CPP operations.

Priority actions for year one

While the blueprint contains a comprehensive assessment of the policy reforms needed, we have identified four immediate steps that Cleveland’s elected leaders should take within the next year. These initial steps will lay the groundwork for broader reform.

  1. Institute a Resident Advisory Board that provides both ratepayer transparency and oversight, and informs the design and implementation of low-income assistance programs and other local green energy infrastructure projects.

  2. Review and redesign the disconnection and reconnection process, including providing easily accessible, clear information in multiple formats and languages that responds to the needs and addresses the barriers of impacted customers.

  3. Create a community-informed, community-partner-supported resilience network that is informed by a publicly accessible, interactive dashboard similar to 311 services. The dashboard should include real-time information on outages, repair times, durations, and frequencies, as well as other social and demographic data, including energy burdens.

  4. Successfully accept and implement federal, state, and other large infrastructure investment opportunities, including the US EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and Solar For All, which will accelerate CPP’s ability to provide locally generated, affordable, clean, and reliable power to its rate payers. Work with local and national partners to fight unjust moves by the Trump administration to eliminate such funding.

Reform blueprint produced by Our CPP and the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund
July 2025