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AEP Ohio Withdraws SEET Settlement Relating to CSP Rate Hike, Merger
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December
17, 2010
AEP Ohio has withdrawn a stipulation governing its Significantly Excessive Earnings Test which also would have impacted rates at Columbus Southern Power and committed signatories to supporting the pending merger of Columbus Southern Power and Ohio Power into a single operating company.
AEP Ohio cited the PUCO's extended schedule for reviewing the non-
As previously reported, the stipulation would have eliminated Columbus Southern Power's ability to raise total rates (either generation or distribution) 6% in 2011, and would have committed stipulating parties, including PUCO staff, to supporting the merger of Columbus Southern Power and Ohio Power.
Interestingly, a news release issued by AEP Ohio yesterday described the stipulation by stating it, "would have resolved pending cases in front of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), including the company's Significantly Excessive Earnings Test (SEET), Fuel Adjustment Clause (FAC) audit cases, and the merger application for Columbus Southern Power (CSP) and Ohio Power."
AEP Ohio's filing to withdraw from the stipulation uses somewhat more nuanced language, but still describes the stipulation as, "resolving certain issues involving the merger."
The stipulation actually would not have "resolved" the merger proceeding or any issues
therein, and did not contain any order or finding with respect to the merger case.
Rather, signatories committed to supporting the merger and certain related provisions
(relating to job commitments, treatment of earnings), but acceptance of the SEET
stipulation by PUCO, under our reading, would not have adjudicated any issues in
the merger proceeding. Indeed, the stipulation was not even filed in the merger
proceeding, Case 10-
AEP Ohio's description of the stipulation as "resolving" the merger, or certain issues involving the merger, feeds into the perception that AEP Ohio was seeking a fait accompli with respect to the merger through the SEET stipulation, bypassing parties who are seeking intervention in the recently filed merger case but were not parties to the SEET case, whose original scope had nothing to do with merging the operating companies (and thus did not prompt intervention by those only affected by the merger and not SEET, such as retail suppliers).
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