Those who worked out the agreement late Monday included PUCO staff, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, Duke Energy Ohio, Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy, the city of Cincinnati and 20 other entities.
Involved parties have until today to file testimony in support of the agreement and PUCO staffers have until Friday, according to PUCO spokesman Matt Butler.
On Nov. 4, all the parties will meet in Columbus to sum up the case and discuss the agreement’s stipulations during a hearing.
“The parties have asked for the commissioners here to approve the agreement on or before Nov. 15,” Butler said.
The settlement “supports competition, preserves customer choice and will ultimately increase opportunities for cost savings,” according to Bill Massey, counsel for COMPETE Coalition, an alliance of 600 electricity stakeholders, including representatives of a range of customers and customer groups, competitive retail and wholesale suppliers, environmental organizations and others.
Duke spokeswoman Sally Thelen said the support of intervening parties has been instrumental in reaching an agreement that balances the needs of Duke, its customers and key stakeholders.
“We believe this agreement, if it’s approved by the commission, provides Duke Energy Ohio customers the opportunity to take advantage of today’s low market rates and allows the company to focus on the long term competitiveness of its generation assets in Ohio,” Thelen said.
While the agreement is different from one Duke introduced in June, seeking to price electricity for 9 years and 5 months, it still includes a non-bypassable, one-time stability charge for Duke customers who leave for other electric suppliers between 2012 and 2014, Thelen said.
That charge would vary by class of customer, she said.
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