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Count on the Dayton Daily News to continue its in-depth coverage of Dayton Power and Light’s request with the PUCO.
A consumer protection group says Dayton Power and Light’s attempt to return to 2013 rates under its electric security plan request will mean higher costs for residential customers.
“At a time when 500,000 customers of Dayton Power and Light should be receiving long overdue rate decreases, DP&L wants to increase monthly rates by about $8 per month for residential customers,” the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel argued Friday in a filing before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
The case before the PUCO comes less than two months after an Ohio Supreme Court decision that reversed a ruling that let DP&L charge customers extra in an “electric security plan service stability rider.”
The rider at issue was designed to help protect DP&L as customers switched to new power providers in a more competitive market.
The counsel’s office, which earlier this year appealed against the rider along with the Industrial Energy Consumers of Ohio, has urged the PUCO to act on the Supreme Court’s June decision, halting what it says is a nearly $10 monthly charge.
“Since Jan. 1, 2014, DP&L has taken approximately $285 million in subsidies from customers in the Dayton area —where there is financial distress and a poverty level of 35 percent — through its inaptly named service stability charge,” the counsel’s office has argued
In a July 27 filing before the PUCO seeking to implement the previously authorized 2013 rates, DP&L said that “rates that are consistent with DP&L’s 2013 rates … must be put back into effect,” until the PUCO approves a new service stability rider.
The counsel’s office disagrees.
“The court reversed the PUCO on one issue — the service stability charge,” the counsel’s office said. “It is time for the PUCO to address the court’s mandate and reduce rates to DP&L’s customers.”
The filing argues that DP&L is seeking to withdraw a rider that amounts to $9.85 a month in exchange for new costs amounting to $17.92 a month.
The net impact — the $9.85 current charge subtracted from the $17.92 in proposed charges — means a total net impact of $8.07 more each month — or nearly $97 a year, the counsel’s office says.
Mary Ann Kabel, a spokeswoman for DP&L, disputed the cost but declined to offer an alternative number.
“Right now, we don’t know what the rates will be until the commission actually issues the order,” she said.
Matt Schilling, a PUCO spokesman, said he couldn’t comment on whether restoration of the 2013 rates would mean higher charges for DP&L customers.
“The commission will have to evaluate that,” Schilling said.
Schilling said he didn’t know when a vote on DP&L’s bid to return to earlier rates would be on PUCO’s agenda, but a vote may be in the “near future.”
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