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Opt-out Aggregations to Receive "Separate" Allotment of RPM-Priced Capacity at AEP Ohio
January 24, 2012
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Copyright 2010-
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has clarified its order concerning the discounted capacity set asides available for shopping customers at AEP Ohio, which will expand the amount of load able to be served with RPM-priced capacity versus how AEP Ohio proposed to implement PUCO's prior order.
Among other things, AEP Ohio's compliance filing concerning the discounted capacity did not alter the re-allocation of available discounted capacity from the residential and industrial classes to the over-subscribed commercial class which occurred in late 2011, based on the interpretation that PUCO's prior order only prevented the re-allocation of unused discounted capacity among customer classes for the period after January 1, 2012.
The Commission clarified, however, that, "Nowhere in the [prior] Opinion and Order is this modification limited to unused capacity allotments as of January 2012."
"The Commission clarifies that, in the Opinion and Order, we explicitly modified the Stipulation to ensure 'that RPM-priced capacity allocation determined for each customer class is only available for customers in the particular customer class, no RPM-priced capacity can be allocated to a customer in another customer class' ... For further clarification purposes, the Commission notes that this modification to the Stipulation goes back to the initial allocation among the customer classes based on the September 7, 2011, data, regardless of whether any customer class is now oversubscribed."
Another contested interpretation was whether PUCO's action to ensure that governmental aggregations received discounted capacity should be counted towards the caps on discounted RPM capacity.
PUCO clarified that, in holding that AEP Ohio must accommodate opt-out aggregations with discounted capacity, "the Commission established an additional separate allotment of RPM-priced capacity set asides, over and above the pro rata allocation provided to customers in the Stipulation for 2012 to ensure that any customer located in a governmental aggregation community receives a set-aside" [emphasis added].
"For subsequent years beginning in 2013, the Commission held that the set-aside levels 'shall be adjusted to accommodate such governmental aggregation programs for each subsequent year of the Stipulated ESP, to the extent, and only if necessary.' Therefore, the Commission clarifies that we retain continuing jurisdiction over the set-aside levels for 2013 and 2014, as approved in the Opinion and Order in this proceeding."
"We further note that it is the policy of this state to promote retail competition irrespective of whether such competition takes place though government aggregation or shopping by individual retail customers. We will continue to monitor retail shopping in the AEP-Ohio service territories, and we retain jurisdiction over the set-aside levels, as well as all other provisions of the Stipulation, in order to ensure that retail shopping through government aggregations does not unintentionally displace individual customer shopping in 2013 and 2014," PUCO said.
Additionally, PUCO clarified that mercantile customers should not be excluded from RPM-priced capacity that may be available to non-mercantile customers in eligible governmental aggregation communities.
Finally, the Commission clarified that the accommodation of discounted capacity to government aggregations, "is meant to include all communities that have established governmental aggregation programs, up to and including those communities that approved government aggregation programs in the November 2011 election, provided the community or its CRES provider completes the necessary process to take service in the AEP-Ohio service territory by December 31, 2012." AEP Ohio had interpreted the accommodation as applying only to those aggregations authorized in the November 2011 election.
Email This StoryCopyright 2010-
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