Consumer Counsel Seeks Suspension Of Automatic Approval Of Utility's New Bills Which Include New Price To Compare Savings Language

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel filed a motion at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio seeking suspension of automatic approval of a revised bill format filed by Duke Energy Ohio, as OCC said that the changes should be further reviewed

As exclusively first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, the new bills include, among other things, revisions to the Price to Compare language that is included on bills for both default service customers and retail supplier customers served under utility consolidated billing

See our prior story for details on the PTC language, including direction on the conditions needed for customers to "save" money

OCC said that, "Changes in bill formats can ... provide opportunities for implementing improvements for consumers, such as a price to compare (this shows a customer what a marketer price would need to be to save money over Duke’s standard offer) and shadow billing (this a calculation of the amount marketer customers pay above or below the amount they would have paid for gas service on Duke’s standard offer). These changes can better inform consumers about their utility rights and responsibilities, the specific services they are paying for, and whether alternatives can save money."

OCC also noted that the samples originally filed by Duke did not contain the PTC language in samples for customers on utility consolidated billing. OCC noted that the Ohio Administrative Code requires the PTC on all customer bills

Duke Energy has clarified to EnergyChoiceMatters.com that Price To Compare language will appear on all bills, both for SSO customers and utility consolidated bills for customers on CRES service, per the Ohio Administrative Code. A representative for Duke said that the omission of the Price to Compare language from the utility consolidated bill examples filed with PUCO was an oversight

Case No. 19-1593-GE-UNC