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At Another Utility With Zero-Discount POR Program, PUC Staff Recommend Consideration Of Recovering POR Collection Costs From Retail Suppliers, If Proportion Of Choice Charge-offs Increases
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Staff of the PUC of Ohio have recommended that another utility -- this time Duke Energy Ohio, for electricity -- consider, if bad debt related to choice customers increases relative to its current proportion of overall write-offs, recovering collection costs related to choice utility consolidated bills from retail suppliers
Duke is the only Ohio electric utility with a purchase of receivables program (called purchase of accounts receivable or PAR at Duke), with a long-standing 0% discount design
In a report in Duke Energy Ohio's current electric rate case, PUCO Staff reported that Duke's purchase of electric receivables has increased 50%
since 2023 in dollar amount, with a total purchase of $808,509,715 in 2025.
Staff reported that the percentage of PAR net charge-offs to total charge-offs has also increased since 2023 by nearly 5%.
Still, Staff reported that retail supplier PAR net charge-offs in 2025 are only 15% of the total charge-offs for Duke, representing less
than 0.25% of the PAR receivables for 2025.
Staff noted that Duke's uncollectibles and collection costs, including for POR, are generally recovered from all customers on largely a nonbypassable basis (a shopping account not included in PAR may bypass the generation uncollectibles rider)
Staff said, "Duke’s PAR
program includes competitive supplier bills for recovery through the bad debt riders. As generation
rates have recently increased, so too has the dollar amount of purchases through the PAR."
Staff noted that, "The
impact of generation increases, however, has not translated into net charge off increases based on
PAR. The vast majority of commercial and industrial customers have a competitive supplier, with
very few utilizing default generation services. Only half of residential customers, however, utilize
a competitive supplier for generation. The result is that 85% of the net charge offs are attributed
to the Company’s service (distribution and default generation service) with a smaller amount
attributed to competitive suppliers’ generation."
Staff further said, "Based on Staff’s review of the PAR and collections, Staff believes that if the PAR program reflects
an increased proportion of the net charge offs in the future, then the Company should examine
whether competitive supplier collection costs should be recovered from competitive suppliers."
"Staff, however, recommends that the PAR program remain unchanged at this time," Staff said
Concerning Duke electric customer contacts to PUCO's call center for the period January 2024 to May 2026, Staff reported that contacts categorized as "competitive concerns" were 29% of all
concerns, with such categorization including issues related to the PUCO Apples to Apple matrix, Do
Not Aggregate concerns and requests, Competitive Issues and Inquiries, and Governmental Aggregation concerns
Case 26-132-EL-AIR et al.; 26-0132-EL-AIR
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September 21, 2026
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Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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