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PUC Sets Effective Date For Recently Approved Rules Requiring Retail Suppliers To Provide Advance Notice For Expedited Return Of Mercantile Customers To Default Service; Request Form Updated
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A PUC of Ohio ALJ has established July 17, 2026 as the effective date for new rules governing the return of mercantile customers to default service, including expedited returns to the SSO, at OAC 4901:1-10-36 and 4901:1-21-21
R.C. 4928.105, under last year's HB 15, requires that utilities complete, within three business days, a request for a mercantile customer to be returned, on an expedited basis, to the standard service offer (SSO). The law allows the utilities to recover, through "reasonable" fees charged to retail electric suppliers, the administrative costs of processing such expedited return requests. Such costs are to be addressed in EDC tariff filings, PUCO previously held, and were not set in the rules
In adopting the rules, PUCO approved rule language stating that a retail supplier "should" provide 7 calendar days' notice to the mercantile customer and the utility prior to submitting a certified request to the utility to return the mercantile customer to the SSO, "unless a different timeframe is agreed to between the parties in the voluntary service agreement that explicitly authorizes the expedited return."
See more background here
Additionally, PUCO Staff has modified the certified-request form which retail electric suppliers are to use to effect an expedited return to default service for a mercantile customer
The modified form addresses concerns raised by AEP Ohio with regards to an earlier draft
AEP Ohio said that the draft form's use of the term "Mercantile Customer Account
Number" was ambiguous, potentially meaning either a customer’s unique EDU billing
account number or a customer’s Service Delivery Identifier (SDI) number. In some cases,
AEP Ohio stated, one customer could have multiple SDI numbers for one bill account
number. Thus, confusion might result about which
service point the customer seeks to switch. Instead, AEP Ohio
recommended that the "Customer Account Number" used in the form should mean the SDI number, not a
billing account number
The ALJ said that the certified request form has been modified to reflect this
change
Case 25-741-EL-ORD, 25-0741-EL-ORD
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July 7, 2026
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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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