AEP Ohio Seeks To Reduce Time Supplier Charges Remain On Utility Consolidated Bill After Customer Relationship Ends

As part of a tariff filing to implement a previously reported supplier consolidated billing pilot (see story here), AEP Ohio ("the Company") has filed tariff revisions at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio which would also reduce the billing periods during which supplier charges are presented on utility consolidated bills after termination of the customer's relationship with the supplier

Currently, AEP Ohio's tariff provides, under rate ready utility consolidated billing, "The Company shall present charges on the next bill generated for the customer unless one or more of the following conditions apply: 1) the CRES Provider and the customer was terminated over 60 days before; 2) the Company no longer presents a bill to the customer because of a change in CRES Provider and billing option. If none of these exemptions apply, the Company will present the CRES Provider’s charges on the next two consecutive scheduled billings after the relationship between the CRES Provider and the customer terminates." The same timeline applies for bill ready billing.

Under the filed tariff revisions, the obligation to list the supplier's charges would be reduced to one billing after the relationship between the CRES Provider and the customer terminates, as stated in the following proposed rate ready language: "The Company shall present charges on the next bill generated for the customer unless one or more of the following conditions apply: 1) the CRES Provider and the customer was terminated over 30 days before; 2) the Company no longer presents a bill to the customer because of a change in CRES Provider and billing option. If none of these exemptions apply, the Company will present the CRES Provider's charges on the next scheduled billing after the relationship between the CRES Provider and the customer terminates." Similar revisions were filed with respect to bill ready billing

The revised tariff also states that, "The Company will continue to bill for previous balances due the CRES Provider on the bill as long as the relationship between the CRES Provider and the customer exists, and for one (1) scheduled billing period after the relationship terminates," rather than billing, "for the two (2) scheduled billing periods after the relationship terminates," as stated in the current tariff

In its filing, AEP Ohio said of this change, "The working group, which includes Staff, agreed it was necessary to reduce from two billing periods to one billing period the continuation of EDU billings on behalf of a CRES following the termination of a CRES-customer relationship."

Notably, although PUCO has approved a purchase of receivables implementation plan at AEP Ohio (see story here), it is understood that the program has not yet been implemented

AEP Ohio's filing also revises the tariff to include the supplier consolidated billing pilot, and simply references the program design, terms, and conditions established by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in Case Nos. 16-1852-EL-SSO et al.

Case 18-1629-EL-ATA