Supreme Court of Ohio Reverses PUCO Approval of DP&L Rider

This week, in a one-sentence decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed the PUCO’s approval of Dayton Power and Light’s (DP&L) Service Stability Rider (SSR).

DP&L had claimed that the SSR was necessary to make up for lost revenue due to increased customer switching, declining wholesale prices, and declining capacity prices.  But opponents argued that the SSR was impermissible because it enabled DP&L to collect transition revenue or its equivalent.

The court did not provide a detailed rationale to justify its reversal of the PUCO; instead, the court simply cited to its decision involving AEP from a few months ago where it found that the PUCO erred in authorizing AEP to collect the equivalent of transition revenue through a charge that was similar to DP&L’s SSR.

It is estimated that DP&L has so far collected about $250 million through the SSR and that another $80 million remains to be collected.