Originally, a proposed settlement had called for a payment of $30,000.
“Consumers expect and deserve reliable electricity service,” PUCO Chair Jenifer French said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s agreement will help to ensure that AES Ohio delivers reliable power into the future.”
In its order, the commission said AES Ohio provided a plan to meet reliability standards.
The agreement approved includes additional financial penalties should the utility continue to miss its standards in the future.
On Aug. 16, 2024, a settlement was reached by PUCO staff, AES Ohio, and the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.
Utilities are required to meet system-wide metrics called the system average interruption frequency index (known as “SAIFI” standards), which represents the average number of interruptions per customer, and customer average interruption duration index (CAIDI), which represents the average interruption duration in minutes.
AES Ohio didn’t meet the CAIDI standard for four years — 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The utility’s performance since then has improved.
A utility that underperforms either metric for two consecutive years is in violation of PUCO regulations.
Representatives of the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel objected this past summer as AES Ohio crafted settlements with interested parties over its failure to meet reliability standards — settlements that would penalize the utility at the time just $30,000 for falling short.
That penalty was insufficient, argued Maureen Willis, the state’s consumers’ counsel.
“$30,000 is not really very much money at all for a corporation that’s the size of AES,” she told the Dayton Daily News.
Parent company AES Corp. — the Arlington, Va. company that bought the former Dayton Power & Light, now AES Ohio, in 2011 — saw total revenue of more than $6 billion in the six months that ended June 30, 2024.
“Just giving them a $30,000 fine, I think that doesn’t do it,” Willis said earlier this year.
On Thursday, in a prepared statement, Willis said: “We were able to reach a better result for the consumers we represent. Ohio consumers deserve reliable service from their utilities who must face consequences if they fail to meet the PUCO’s minimum reliability standards.”
A message seeking comment was left with a representative of AES Ohio.
About the Author
