Columbia Gas Of Ohio Default Service Retail Adder To Increase Nearly 60%

A January 26 auction to determine the Retail Price Adjustment (RPA) for the Standard Choice Offer at Columbia Gas of Ohio resulted in an RPA of $1.70 per Mcf, for the period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022

That's nearly 60% higher than the current RPA of $1.07 per Mcf

In a post-auction report, PUCO Staff noted the potential impact of a TC Energy FERC Rate Case on the SCO Auction

"On July 31, 2020, TC Energy Corporation (TC Energy) filed a Rate Case at FERC. In its filing TC Energy proposed an overall increase of approximately ninety-seven percent for the transmission and storage assets feeding Columbia’s system. The rate proposed by TC Energy will go into effect on February 1, 2021, with a FERC decision expected sometime in early 2022. It is anticipated that the increase in demand charges could impact the RPA for the Columbia 2021 auction which was held on January 26, 2021," Staff said

PUCO is set to address the auction results this week

The Retail Price Adjustment will be added to the NYMEX closing price for the prompt month to set the Standard Choice Offer rate.

The SCO auction is a retail auction which assigns specific customers to winning suppliers (plus a portion of the load ineligible for choice, such as Percentage of Income Payment Plan customers) for a one-year term.

There were five winning bidders in the 2021 auction

Bidder identities will remain confidential for 15 days, but on a 'blind' basis, here is how the tranches were divided among winning bidders

Company B - 2 Tranches
Company C - 4 Tranches
Company E - 4 Tranches
Company G - 2 Tranches
Company I - 4 Tranches

A supplier was limited to bidding on a maximum of four tranches.

There were 7 active bidders in the 2021 auction (nine qualified)

For comparison, the January 2020 Columbia SCO auction had produced 5 winning bidders from 9 bidders who submitted a bid.

In the January 2020 auction, three suppliers had won 4 tranches each; one supplier had won 3 tranches, and one supplier had won a single tranche.