PUC Approves Tariff Changes To Reduce Time Supplier Charges Remain On Utility Consolidated Bill After Customer Relationship Ends

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has approved tariff changes at AEP Ohio ("the Company") which reduce the number of billing periods during which retail electric supplier charges are presented on utility consolidated bills after the termination of the customer's relationship with the supplier

The tariff revisions were included as part of a tariff filing to implement a previously reported supplier consolidated billing pilot (see story here)

Prior to the revisions, AEP Ohio's tariff provided that, 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 adopted tariff revisions, the obligation to list the supplier's charges is reduced to one billing after the relationship between the CRES Provider and the customer terminates, as stated in the following adopted 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 adopted 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 prior 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

The adopted AEP Ohio tariff 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.

As exclusively reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, AEP Ohio recently provided an update on the start date for supplier consolidated billing, stating that the Company anticipates the start date of the pilot program to be sometime in the first half of 2019

Case 18-1629-EL-ATA