Ohio Supreme Court Finds PUCO Erred

Late last week, the Ohio Supreme Court decided two separate cases impacting AEP customer charges.

In the first case, Justice Sharon Kennedy authored the high court’s decision finding that the PUCO incorrectly authorized AEP to recover from customers the equivalent of transition revenues through the retail stability rider. This is a significant win for customers, estimated to result in a $310 million reduction to customers.

In another case also authored by Justice Kennedy dealing with AEP’s capacity-pricing mechanism, the court found in favor of AEP, stating that the PUCO erred by failing to adequately explain the method it used to calculate credits used to reduce the capacity charge.  The court did not find that the capacity charge collected was incorrect, just that the PUCO had not adequately explained its decision.

Both cases were sent back to the PUCO.