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Retail Supplier Applies To Re-enter State
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Palmco Power OH, LLC applied for an Ohio retail electricity supplier license to serve industrial and mercantile customers at Duke Energy Ohio
Palmco Energy OH, LLC applied for an Ohio retail natural gas supplier license to serve large commercial and industrial customers in all service areas
As previously reported, in 2019 PALMco Power OH, LLC, PALMco Energy Ohio, LLC, and Staff of the PUC of Ohio entered into a stipulation to resolve allegations from PUCO Staff that PALMco had allegedly engaged in, "unfair, misleading, deceptive and unconscionable marketing, solicitation, and sales acts and practices when PALMco committed to provide customers with 'competitive' and 'the best' rates, when in reality, PALMco charged customers quadruple the price to compare."
One of the provisions of the 2019 settlement was that PALMco’s then-current owners agreed not to operate as an owner, officer, director, or partner for another competitive retail electric service (CRES) "company" or competitive retail natural gas service (CRNGS) "company" (which would include a retail supplier, broker, marketer, or aggregator) in Ohio for five years from the signing of the stipulation. The settlement was signed on July 31, 2019 and thus this stay-out period for a CRES/CRNGS "company" has expired
As previously reported, in 2021, PALMco entered into a second settlement addressing various allegations of allegedly deceptive marketing, covering a different time period than the earlier settlement. In such 2021 settlement, PALMco agreed that its then-current owners will not serve as an owner, officer, director, or partner for a competitive retail electric service "supplier" or a competitive retail natural gas service "supplier" in Ohio for a period of seven years from October 20, 2021, except that PALMco's then-current owners would be permitted, after July 31, 2024, to serve as as an owner, officer, director, or partner for an Ohio retail supplier if such supplier, "serves only large commercial and/or industrial customers."
PUCO, in approving broker applications from CGE Renewables earlier this year (which has one or more of the same owners as PALMco), found that allowing service to mercantile customers is consistent with the stipulation's provision limiting service to "large commercial and/or industrial customers", due to mercantile customers having a similar level of sophistication to large C&Is, and because, by definition, a mercantile customer may not consume energy for residential use
The need for PUCO to specifically address service to mercantile customers in the CGE Renewables case was prompted, in part, because a mercantile customer, while in many cases meeting the definition of a large C&I customer, may actually be smaller and actually may not, in certain instances, meet the definition of a large commercial or industrial customer (though, as noted by PUCO, a mercantile customer may not consume energy for residential use)
As previously noted by ECM, an Ohio commercial customer can be designated as mercantile, regardless of usage level, due to being included in a, "national account involving multiple facilities in one or more states" (for electricity, with a similar multi-location option granting mercantile status on the gas side). In other words, a small commercial customer may be eligible for mercantile status based on the customer's operations at other locations
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December 22, 2025
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Copyright 2025 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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