SCO Retail Price Adjustment Approved at Columbia Gas

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved the results of the Standard Choice Offer auction at Columbia Gas, which assigned non-shopping, choice-eligible customers to a specific retail supplier for the period April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013.

The auction resulted in a Retail Price Adjustment of $1.53 per Mcf, which will be fixed for the 12-month period.

The Retail Price Adjustment will be added to NYMEX closing price for the prompt month to set the Standard Choice Offer rate.

The auction was the first for Standard Choice Offer service at Columbia Gas, as customers were previously served under the Standard Service Offer, which will cease March 31, 2012.

The SCO auction is a retail auction which assigns specific customers to winning suppliers (plus a portion of the load ineligible for choice, such as Percentage of Income Payment Plan customers) for a one-year term, in contrast to the SSO auction which was for wholesale supplies.

The SCO auction saw 13 active bidders, with 15 qualified bidders.

Five retail suppliers were awarded tranches in the auction, which featured 16 tranches and a bid cap of four trances per supplier.

Winning bidders will remain confidential for 15 days.

The descending clock auction was conducted by World Energy Solutions.