New electricity auction may lower AES Ohio ‘standard service’ rates

DP&L substation located at 9755 Yankee St. Centerville.
MARSHALL GORBY\STAFF

DP&L substation located at 9755 Yankee St. Centerville. MARSHALL GORBY\STAFF

Based on Tuesday’s wholesale electricity auction, AES Ohio’s average residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month could see a decrease in their bills of $2.26, a spokeswoman for AES Ohio said Wednesday.

“We are calculating the retail price for customers and the next procedural step will be to file blended rate resulting from the two competitive (auctions) with the PUCO (Public Utilities Commission of Ohio),” said Mary Ann Kabel, a spokeswoman for AES Ohio, formerly known as Dayton Power & Light.

The company will file those final rates with state regulators in a week or two.

However, with electric costs, nothing is simple. Some facts to keep in mind:

AES Ohio passes its market prices from the auction to residential customers who have AES Ohio as their supplier for what is known as the “standard service offer,” sometimes called the “SSO.”

If another company is your supplier, this new number does not apply to you.

What AES Ohio customers pay to cover distribution of electricity is expected to go up. In December, a spokeswoman for the PUCO could not say how much that increase will be or when it will go into effect. State regulators should know more once AES Ohio’s “electric security” or operating plan is finalized, perhaps this spring.

All Ohio utilities participate in a competitive market-based auction for generation of electricity.

In these auctions, wholesale suppliers bid to serve AES Ohio customers their generation supply of electricity, and pricing is based on market conditions that day.

The auctions are conducted by an independent third party with oversight by the PUCO.

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.

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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