If the stipulation is approved by the PUCO, the average residential customer in DP&L’s service area, using 1,000 kWh on DP&L’s “standard service” offer, can expect a monthly bill increase of $2.64.
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The utility says the stipulation balances “the interests of residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
“The stipulation allows DP&L the opportunity to meet the needs of its customers and support the company’s investments to maintain reliability and customer service,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
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DP&L said the stipulation also resolves issues tied to last year’s federal corporate tax cut. Some observers, including the PUCO, said Ohio utilities should cut rates commensurate with those lowered taxes.
“The resolution includes an agreement to return the tax savings associated with the act,” DP&L said in its statement. The utility said the agreement also includes a “commitment to return to its customers no less than $4 million per year for five years.”
A spokeswoman for the Office of Ohio Consumers’ Counsel said her office agreed to the stipulation.
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DP&L says it maintains the lowest residential rates of the investor-owned utilities in Ohio.
“This proposed settlement represents a compromise among the parties, while allowing DP&L to provide ongoing, essential system maintenance to the poles, wires, transformers, substations and other infrastructure that safely deliver electricity to our customers,” DP&L President and Chief Executive Craig Jackson said in the utility’s release.
“We take pride in serving our customers and if approved by the (PUCO), this settlement is critical to ensuring our customers continue to have the safe, reliable service they have known and come to expect,” Jackson added.
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