Supreme Court of Ohio Decision re. DP&L Unlawful Charges Sets Bad Precedent

On October 4, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a decision dismissing the appeal brought by the OMA Energy Group, among others, regarding the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s (PUCO) decision to allow the Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L) to withdraw its second electric security plan (ESP II) after the court had previously determined that the PUCO-approved ESP II included $294 million in unlawful transition charges to customers.

Three justices joined the majority opinion, one justice concurred, and three justices dissented. The majority of the court decided that even though the PUCO approved an unlawful charge and then refused to rectify its error when told to do so by the court, customers would see no relief because a new ESP is now in place.

Kim Bojko of Carpenter Lipps & Leland, energy counsel to OMA Energy Group, wrote: “This decision sets a bad precedent for future cases because it allows the PUCO’s failure to properly implement a court order to go unchecked, to the detriment of customers.”

Dayton Daily News covered the case. 10/11/2018