Calculate How Much AEP & FirstEnergy Power Purchase Agreements Will Cost Your Company

FirstEnergy (FE) and American Electric Power (AEP) have negotiated settlements with the Staff of the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) and several intervenors for nonbypassable Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) riders
that all customers in each utility’s service territory would be required to pay.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel has estimated that the FE settlement could cost consumers $3.9 billion over the eight-year duration of the PPA, and the AEP settlement could cost consumers $2 billion. Annual rider costs for the manufacturers are estimated to range from $2,500 to $600,000 depending on which utility serves them and how much electricity they use.

These PPA riders will be used by the utilities to subsidize certain uneconomical (coal-fired and/or nuclear) generating facilities that they, or their unregulated competitive generation affiliates, own, thus eliminating their own cost risk and putting it on the backs of consumers.

In both cases, PUCO staff initially rejected FE’s and AEP ‘s PPA proposals due to lack of consumer benefits, but ultimately agreed to amend versions of the PPAs as well as other costly provisions after behind closed doors negotiations with small groups of stakeholders, many of whose support was contingent on predefined financial benefits.

The full PUCO is expected to act in early 2016.

Here is an Executive Briefing with details about the settlements.

Call to action

Members are urged to immediately call, send letters on company letterhead, request a meeting, or email to express opposition to this plan to:

• Governor (see contact information)
• Your state senator
• Your state representative
• Leadership of JobsOhio (see contact information)

Here are talking/copy points, and tools for communicating with elected officials.