“We don’t have the exact numbers because we’re waiting on the company to file their final tariff, but they (PUCO members) approved 7.43% rate of return” to AES Ohio, said PUCO spokeswoman Brittany Waugaman.
State regulators will know more about what rates will be once a new “electric security” or operating plan for AES Ohio is finalized, perhaps in the spring, Waugaman said.
She could not be more precise. “It’s a long process,” she said of finalizing an electric security plan, sometimes called an “ESP.”
For now, PUCO members approved a 7.43% rate of return for AES Ohio, the former Dayton Power & Light. That’s higher than what PUCO staff recommended, she said.
Commission members approved the rate freeze/eventual increase Wednesday without discussion.
AES Ohio filed in September for its new ESP, calling it “a comprehensive plan to enhance and upgrade its network and improve service reliability, provide greater safeguards for price stability and continue investments in local economic development.”
Under previous PUCO staff estimates of what a distribution increase would cost an AES Ohio residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity a month, their bill would rise by $4.49 monthly. Someone using 1,200 kWh would see a $4.84 increase every month.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. residential customer uses about 909 kWh per month. In Ohio, the average is closer to 892 kWh a month.
Dayton-area residents will have a chance to comment on the proposed ESP in a public meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at Dayton City Hall commission chambers, 101 W. Third St.
That plan would impose new costs on a residential customer using 750 kWh a month of less than $1 before rising to $4 a month in new costs.
That plan also depends on approval by the PUCO, which scheduled the Feb. 2 hearing in Dayton.
Residents also can address written comments to PUCO at 180 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215. Comments should reference case docket number 22-900-EL-SSO.
The Office of the Ohio Consumers Counsel has opposed an increase in distribution rates or any increase tied to a new electric security plan.
“Especially given soaring energy prices and inflation, this is not the time for AES’s proposals to increase the electric rates of Dayton-area consumers,” said J.P. Blackwood, a spokesman for the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. “We have presented our evidence to the PUCO for why it should completely deny AES’s proposed rate increase this week. We hope the PUCO will protect consumers.”
Even with the increase, AES Ohio’s transmission and distribution rates will remain the lowest in Ohio among investor-owned utilities, the company said.
“Investments in our network are essential to serve our customers reliably, and the PUCO order recognizes the company’s need to recover those investments,” said Kristina Lund, AES Ohio president and chief executive.
AES Ohio provides electric transmission and distribution service to more than 527,000 customers across its 6,000-square-mile service territory in west central Ohio.
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