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PUCO Approves Settlement For Deployment of 900,000 Smart Meters at AEP Ohio, Addresses Retail Supplier Time of Use Billing, AMI Data Provision

February 2, 2017

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Copyright 2010-17 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved, with no substantive modifications to provisions related to the retail market, a stipulation among several parties that permits AEP Ohio to proceed with phase 2 of its gridSMART program, which includes the deployment of approximately 894,000 AMI meters, and which requires steps to permit the billing of Time of Use rates by retail suppliers, with utility-offered TOU supply rate options terminated upon a competitive market for TOU generation supply.

The additional AMI deployment will not result in territory-wide deployment. In a 2013 application for the phase 2 deployment, AEP Ohio said that it had approximately 1.5 million meters installed throughout its service territory and, of this total, AEP Ohio had thus far (as of such earlier time) converted approximately 132,000 meters to AMI. In the 2013 application, AEP Ohio said that it was still studying metering technology for its rural customers

Deployment of the 894,000 additional AMI meters will occur over four years.

Under the adopted stipulation, AEP Ohio will work with PUCO Staff and retail suppliers to administer a Time-of-Use (TOU) transition plan. The signatory retail suppliers agree to develop similar programs to the AEP Ohio SMART Shift (2-tier Time of Use), SMART Shift Plus (3-tier TOU plus Critical Peak Pricing), and SMART Cooling (Thermostat) programs within 6 months, using the same on-off peak meter program structure.

Under the TOU transition plan, within approximately 6 months, AEP Ohio will complete the development of the necessary systems and processes to enable competitive electric retail supplier (CRES) TOU programs similar to the existing gridSMART TOU and consumer programs. As part of the transitional period, the gridSMART project shall include the capability of AEP Ohio to provide rate ready and bill ready billing for time of use rates offered by CRES providers that meet the same criteria of AEP Ohio's SMART Shift and SMART Shift plus. In addition, AEP Ohio will support bill ready billing for customers on CRES Smart Cooling programs, where compliance and customer credit calculations will be performed by the CRES. The monthly billing cycle totals per period (i.e., on-peak and off-peak) will be provided to CRES providers within the time windows required by CRES providers for bill-ready and rate-ready billing. AEP Ohio shall build its systems and/or processes to allow for CRES Settlement via actual load data for TOU customers. AEP Ohio will add an AMI flag to the enrollment list to allow the CRES providers to be able to market to the gridSMART customers with an AMI meter

AEP Ohio will also disseminate customer communications to aid customers in moving to retail suppliers with similar TOU program options. These communications will inform the customer of similar CRES programs for the customer to switch to if they so desired and will be administered over a timeframe of approximately six months.

Approximately three months after the systems and processes and customer communications steps are both completed, AEP Ohio and PUCO Staff will coordinate to file a report containing the latest data available concerning CRES TOU offerings. Within 90 days after the report is filed, PUCO will either determine if the CRES TOU market is "sufficiently competitive" or establish a process for reaching that determination. If the CRES TOU offers are deemed "sufficiently competitive", AEP Ohio's simple AMI TOU tariff filing will be dismissed and the utility's pending application requesting to withdraw its existing experimental TOU tariffs (Case No. 13- 1937-EL-ATA) will be deemed approved and such tariffs will be discontinued. AEP Ohio will work with customers who have not enrolled in a CRES TOU plan to transition them to a program of their choice including CRES TOU or AEP Ohio non-TOU default service.

Until such time that the Commission makes a ruling regarding the sufficiency of competitive CRES TOU offers, AEP Ohio's 13-1937 filing will be held in abeyance. If the Commission deems that the CRES programs are not sufficiently competitive, the Commission shall grant the utility's 13-1937 application and adopt AEP Ohio's newly-proposed AMI TOU program only for as long as it takes the market to develop

Under the approved stipulation, AEP Ohio shall initiate efforts to develop the needed systems and/or processes to provide the customers and competitive retail electric service (CRES) providers with customer interval data. AEP Ohio agrees, where possible, to develop the systems and/or processes to provide the customers and CRES with interval data using a phase-in approach and to transfer as much data as possible to the customers and the CRES through the various implementation stages.

AEP Ohio agrees to develop a retail supplier AMI interval data portal. AEP Ohio will target completion of the CRES AMI interval data portal in approximately 24 months after approval of the stipulation. After completion of the CRES AMI interval data portal, CRES providers will have the opportunity to offer more strategic and competitive TOU options and programs. AEP Ohio shall build its system and/or processes to allow for CRES Settlement via actual load data after completion of the CRES AMI interval data portal for all CRES TOU customers. AEP Ohio will install Zigbee or other similar communication module within the AMI meters to facilitate program offerings with in-home technologies.

AEP Ohio agrees to provide AMI interval data to CRES providers via a CRES Web Portal daily using 15 minute intervals. The release of the customer interval data shall be in accordance with the rules adopted by the Commission in Case No. 12-2050-EL-ORD on May 28, 2014.

AEP Ohio will make AMI data available to CRES providers as close to day-after load as possible, presenting the data on the Ohio CRES Portal for download.

AEP Ohio will provide historical usage data in a manner similar to the existing presentation on the AEP Ohio Supplier data website today for Commercial and Industrial customers (15 minute intervals). Data is "bill quality" (scrubbed).

For customers with AMI meters, AEP Ohio plans to utilize AMI interval data to not only calculate yearly transmission and capacity (NSPL and PLC) "tags," but also to perform final PJM 60 day settlement for customers on CRES TOU rates or DLC programs

AEP Ohio agrees to maintain a customer web portal that is customer-focused and displays the customer's AMI interval usage data. AEP Ohio shall use reasonable efforts to display this usage data the day after.

AEP Ohio agrees to provide residential and small business customers with access to Green Button Download.

AEP Ohio agrees to work with the Staff and interested parties within the gridSMART Collaborative to identify any legal and regulatory barriers for an EDU or CRES pilot prepaid metering program that customers could opt-into. Any future opportunity to move forward with Prepaid Metering would address consumer protections.

PUCO directed the prepaid collaborative, "to explore ways in which AMI data and prepaid service might be used to minimize fraudulent usage and disconnection expenses for all customers, particularly with respect to programs for customers with low-income, disability, and medical considerations."

PUCO rejected requests from low-income customer advocates to have retail suppliers pay for certain costs related to AMI data provisions and the web portal, as PUCO found it appropriate for such costs to be paid via distribution rates

Case No. 13-1939-EL-RDR

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