Columbia Gas of Ohio Sees Large Drop in Choice Customers

The number of natural gas customers taking choice service at Columbia Gas of Ohio fell sharply from March 2012 to June 2012, according to the latest data from PUCO.

Link to PUCO June data

Link to PUCO archived data

Matters has also developed a comparison of choice accounts served in March 2012 versus June 2012. As used in this story and the comparison, accounts on choice service refer to customers served by a choice supplier outside of the SCO/SSO [default service].

Link to Matters Comparison of Choice Accounts

From March 2012 to June 2012, Columbia Gas saw the number of residential accounts on choice service fall by 44,500 accounts. During this same period, the number of residential accounts eligible for choice service fell by 11,000. About 36% of residential customers at Columbia took choice service at June 2012, versus 40% at March 2012.

Vectren Energy Delivery saw the number of residential customers on choice service increase by 7,900 from March 2012 to June 2012, with 49% of residential customers taking choice service as of June 2012.

Duke Energy Ohio saw the number of residential customers on choice service increase by 7,200 from March 2012 to June 2012, with 33% of residential customers taking choice service as of June 2012.

The PUCO stats do not include a breakdown of Dominion East Ohio customers on choice versus SCO service, and are not included in Matters' comparison. Dominion East Ohio data, as well as SCO customer levels at the other LDCs (where applicable) can be found in the PUCO stats linked above.