Residential Shopping Craters at Duke Energy Ohio

The number of residential electric customers on competitive supply at Duke Energy Ohio fell by 20% during the first three months of the year, according to the latest data from PUCO.

PUCO's electric migration statistics as of March 31, 2012 are linked below.

March 31 Stats, By Customers

March 31 Stats, By Volumes

Archived Stats

Matters has also developed a comparison of customers migrated as of March 31, 2012 versus December 31, 2011.

Link to Matters' Comparison of Customers Migrated

According to the PUCO data, from December 31, 2011 to March 31, 2012, Duke Energy Ohio saw the number of residential electric customers on competitive supply fall by 38,000, from 189,000 to 151,000.

Duke Energy Ohio was the only territory to see a decline in the number of residential shoppers during the first quarter. In contrast, during the last three months of 2011, Duke Energy Ohio had seen residential migration grow by 6,600 accounts.

The first-quarter decline in residential shopping at Duke Energy Ohio comes as a new electric security plan was implemented, which the CEO of the self-described "nation's leading competitive energy provider" called (along with the now-rejected AEP Ohio electric security plan settlement), "one of the most important step[s] forward for competitive markets in the past decade."

As part of the new electric security plan, Duke Energy Ohio's above-market SSO rates were replaced with market-sourced supply, with supply contracts lasting as long as 41 months.

During the first three months of 2012, total residential distribution accounts at Duke Energy Ohio did decline from 614,000 to 560,000; however, the percent of residential shoppers declined from 31% to 27% over the same period, indicating that the loss of migrated customers outpaced the distribution account churn.

Elsewhere during the first three months of 2012, the number of residential customers on competitive supply increased by 15,500 accounts at the former Columbus Southern Power territory, and 34,000 at the former (e.g. not combined) Ohio Power territory.

Dayton Power & Light saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply increase by 7,700 from December 31, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

All three FirstEnergy Ohio territories saw an increase in the number of residential customers on competitive supply, as follows:

Cleveland Electric Illuminating: +1,200

Ohio Edison: +4,000

Toledo Edison: +10,000

Notably, Toledo Edison reversed the loss of 5,000 residential shoppers it had seen during the final three months of 2011.