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Retail Suppliers Seek Rule Barring Utilities From Using Nonpublic Utility Data In "Affiliate" Services (Definition Includes Non-utility Services From EDC Itself), Unless Such Data Made Available On Nondiscriminatory Basis
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In a PUC of Ohio proceeding governing electric utility corporate separation rules, the Retail Energy Supply Association and Interstate Gas Supply said in joint comments that PUCO, "should adopt rules that prohibit affiliate preferences arising from nonpublic utility data unless there is competitively neutral access to this information."
RESA and IGS said, "The Commission should modify the conduct provisions in Ohio Adm.Code 4901:1-37-04(D) and cost allocation provisions of Ohio Adm.Code 4901:1-37-08 to address the competitive advantages the incumbent monopoly electric utilities have with respect to data access."
Specifically, RESA and IGS said that the Commission, "should clarify that the corporate separation rules prohibit the regulated monopoly distribution service function from sharing nonpublic data with their affiliates unless they make the same data available to CRES [retail] providers."
Notably, while the RESA and IGS request uses the term "affiliate" to describe the proposed prohibition, the term affiliate as used in the corporate separation rules includes the offering, by a utility itself and not only through a separate affiliated company, of a competitive product or service. Thus, the RESA/IGS proposal would bar a utility from relying on non-public utility data in offering a competitive product or service, in addition to barring such behavior through an affiliate
RESA and IGS noted, "it is important to note that the Commission’s rules have, and continue, to define an internal business function of an electric utility that offers a competitive product or service as an affiliate for purposes of compliance with the corporate separation rules."
RESA and IGS alleged several examples of utilities using nonpublic information to develop or advance a competitive service
RESA and IGS alleged, "In AEP Ohio’s data center tariff case, evidence showed a regulated utility employee referring prospective data center customers to AEP Ohio’s competitive affiliate and offering to make introductions. These concerns were compounded by AEP Ohio’s subsequent Bloom Energy fuel cell proposal, which elevated concerns on utility-affiliate preferential treatment and asymmetric data access. More recently, the Commission Staff identified approximately $10 million in corporate separation violations arising from AES Ohio’s dealings with its non-regulated Uplight, Inc. affiliate."
RESA/IGS additionally alleged examples where nonpublic access to utility data has helped utilities' non-utility offerings as having also included, "post termination of the statutory EE/PDR mandates[,] electric utilities proposing in ESP or stand-alone cases energy efficiency and active demand management programs based on customer data not available to CRES providers, and [] post elimination of ESPs, electric utilities proposing active demand management programs based on customer data not available to CRES providers."
In separately filed comments, the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council sought the following prohibitions, which generally mirror previously reported proposals that NOPEC has made in individual utility corporate separation proceedings:
• Prohibit unregulated competitive affiliates of EDUs from using service company employees or executives that perform work for the EDUs.
• Explicitly prohibit the practice of "warm transfers" from the EDUs and/or services company to any unregulated EDU affiliate.
• Require the unregulated competitive affiliates to be completely structurally separated from the EDU and the service company that serves the EDUs.
• Prohibit unregulated competitive affiliates from using the name and branding of the EDU (e.g., "FirstEnergy" or "AEP").
Case No. 26-0061-EL-ORD
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July 2, 2026
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Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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