Ohio Closes Retail Market Investigation Without Making Any Changes

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has closed its investigation into the retail natural gas market, without taking any substantive action.

While the Commission did list several conclusions in its order closing the gas market investigation, none of the conclusions commit the Commission to any specific policy.

"Based on the comments received in this proceeding, the Commission does not recommend widespread regulatory changes at this time," PUCO said.

Among other things, PUCO was examining whether the Standard Choice Offer provides a competitive level playing field for retail providers and whether there are barriers to market entry associated with the SCO. As part of this examination, certain retail suppliers argued that the SCO does not reflect the full costs of providing retail service, due to, among other things, customer acquisition costs not being reflected in the auction price, and preferences granted to SCO providers in obtaining customer information.

Regarding these issues, PUCO concluded, "As Ohio has a statutory duty to promote natural gas competition, the Commission will remain focused on whether the avoided costs described by the stakeholders in this proceeding exist and should be investigated and remediated by the Commission within the confines of dockets specific to the continuation of the SCO by the LDCs. As the Commission continues to further examine these issues in such proceedings, we will be mindful of the need to also analyze whether this asserted disparity creates structural barriers that hinder market development."

PUCO had also been investigating whether the SCO is functioning as a competitive market price. Regarding this issue, PUCO concluded, "As we have supported competitive retail markets in Ohio, we will continue to evaluate all permutations of that market in order to bring about the best possible price to consumers. The legislature and the Commission have forged this path of competitive market development with a certain amount of faith in the market to provide the best possible price for consumers. We must allow for the market to signal if and when the SCO, whether seen as a competitive offering in itself or not, must be eliminated. The Commission is constantly monitoring these markets and is confident that it will have strong indications from the market if and when the time comes to eliminate the SCO."

Regarding customer education, PUCO said that, "the Commission may, if it finds that further consumer education is necessary, initiate, through a separate entry, workshops to be conducted with more fully developed objectives relating to consumer education and program funding."

Case No. 13-1307-GA-COI