CLEVELAND, Ohio -- State lawmakers looking into changing laws that require Ohio's electric utilities help customers use less electricity are making a mistake, says the state's largest manufacturing trade group.

The Ohio Manufacturers' Association is now convinced that the efficiency mandates which lawmakers created in 2008 have already saved customers money and could save Ohio customers about $5.7 billion by 2020 -- if left intact.

The position pits the powerful trade group against a politically potent utility, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, which has been battling for months to get the efficiency rules changed. And it also puts the manufacturers in a camp with environmentalists and other green groups that fought for the standards in the first place.

FirstEnergy has complained that the requirements have cut into normal market growth, making its own recovery from the Great Recession even more difficult and that the standards could stall the construction of new, gas-fired power plants, and perhaps slowing demand for Ohio shale gas.

The association is the second manufacturing group to speak against any radical changes to the 5-year-old rules. Earlier this month, Wire-Net, a Cleveland-based trade group, wrote the utilities committee members to caution them against any abrupt changes.

"Sound energy policy is very important to our companies and to all manufacturers in Ohio. It needs to provide long-term assurance of the lowest cost of energy," Wire-Net stated in its

.

"Support of energy efficiency plays a key role in energy policy because these projects lower our cost of production and insulate us from changes in rates. Along with renewables, efficiency should remain a part of Ohio's energy portfolio."

The letter was signed by 16 Northeast Ohio companies, including Orlando Baking Co., Cleveland Steel Tool Co. and Martindale Electric Co.

OMA's goal is to save its industrial members money on power bills and on continuity of rules.

To that end the OMA commissioned an analysis of rates and expenditures in Ohio by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

And on Tuesday, Neal Elliott, an engineer and one of the authors of the 50-page analysis, appeared before the Senate Public Utilities Committee to try to put some context around that multi-billion dollar bottom line.

In an interview, Elliott said the savings are dependent on the state's four investor-owned utilities spending $2.7 billion in energy efficiency programs.

That money comes from temporary "riders" on power company rates, in other words, rate increases. Some of the state's utilities use those funds to help customers install more efficient operations, while some allow customers to avoid the riders if they pay for upgrades on their own.

The council's analysis of money spent and money that would be saved starts with the annual reports that the utilities have submitted to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio detailing what their programs have cost ratepayers and how much money has been saved.

Elliott said FirstEnergy's reports have been "opaque" and are often inconsistent. He said it is his judgment that American Electric Power, Duke Energy of Ohio and Dayton Power & Electric have embraced the programs, maybe because they have figured out how to profit from it in the long run.

The analysis begins with the assumption that the cost of saving power through efficiency is a lot cheaper than building new power plants.

The analysis concludes generally that the efficiency rules have lowered demand, which in turn has helped push wholesale power prices down.

Eric Burkland, OMA president, did not address the senate committee but in a statement said the efficiency standards "should be retained."

"Water down the standards or eliminating them entirely would be an unfortunate and risky step backward in Ohio - and a blow to broader economic recovery efforts," he said.