Utility To Ostensibly Allow Retail Suppliers To Bill Non-Commodity Services On Utility Bills, But Seeks 18-Month Waiver For Implementation

Waiver Request Suggests Differing Treatment Will Continue In Interim Period

December 1, 2021

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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AEP Ohio has filed a request with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio seeking a "limited" 18-month waiver of Ohio Adm. Code 4901:1-10-33(A), which now requires that utilities not discriminate in the billing of non-commodity and other non-jurisdictional services.

With a November effective date, Ohio Adm. Code 4901:1-10-33(A), was recently amended to provide that, "[a]n electric utility cannot discriminate or unduly restrict a customer’s CRES [competitive retail] provider from including non-jurisdictional charges on a consolidated electric bill."

While PUCO did not mandate that electric utilities bill the non-jurisdictional charges of retail suppliers, utilities are not permitted to bill their own non-jurisdictional charges, or those of an affiliate or exclusively contracted provider, while denying this non-jurisdictional billing functionality to retail suppliers

AEP Ohio seeks a limited waiver of 18 months of the revised rule, "to complete programming of certain consumer protections associated with offering consolidated billing that contains non-jurisdictional services."

AEP Ohio's waiver request suggests two considerations.

First, although not cited in AEP Ohio's filing, AEP Ohio's request suggests that AEP Ohio requires a waiver because it is currently billing certain non-jurisdictional services from the utility or a select provider, and would be out of compliance with the rule, absent the waiver. If AEP Ohio were not currently billing certain non-jurisdictional services from the utility or select provider, then no waiver would ostensibly be needed, because AEP Ohio would be offering the same billing service to itself and retail suppliers: no entity would be billing non-jurisdictional services. Then, once the programming changes discussed below are complete, AEP Ohio could offer the non-jurisdictional billing service to all providers in compliance with the non-discrimination portion of the rule. AEP Ohio previously announced that it would offer customers home warranty service plans from a third party provider; it was unclear if this program is still active and is billed under the utility bill

Second, implicit in the AEP Ohio waiver request implicitly is that AEO Ohio intends to comply with the new rule by affording retail suppliers the ability to bill non-jurisdictional charges on the utility consolidated bill. This approach contrasts with several utilities which have elected to comply with the new rule by ending the billing of their own non-jurisdictional charges (or those of a selected provider or affiliate), rather than extending this bill option to retail suppliers (see story here for details)

Notably, as discussed further below, under AEP Ohio's implementation, retail suppliers will not be able to combine jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional services for billing as a single item

AEP Ohio said in its waiver request that, "certain customer protections must be mapped and coded to ensure that partial payments are posted in the appropriate priority – first applied to CRES provider charges, then to distribution, SSO, and transmission charges, with charges for 'non-jurisdictional services' posting last."

"Failure to pay for non-jurisdictional services, however, is not one of the enumerated reasons permitting termination of residential service. Thus, in addition to programming the functionality and posting priority associated with billing for non-jurisdictional services, AEP Ohio will need time to program its customer information system to ensure that shopping customers are not disconnected for failure to pay for non-jurisdictional services subscribed to from their CRES," AEP Ohio said

AEP Ohio further said, "To ensure appropriate coding and tagging in the customer information system, each billing item will require CRES participation. As set forth in the new rules adopted by the Commission, ' 'non-jurisdictional services' means services which do not meet the definition of 'retail electric service' set forth in division (A)(27) of section 4928.01 of the Revised Code.' Given this broad definition, the nature of services offered by CRES providers will not always be apparent by the name of the service alone. This would leave AEP Ohio in the untenable position of independently determining if a product or service is non-jurisdictional with little to no information. These determinations would then have a flow through impact on payment priority and service termination rights. Such determinations would have further consequences on AEP Ohio’s recently approved shadow billing commitments, which requires the Company to provide certain CRES billing items but exclude 'non-commodity fees' and 'other services charges.'"

"For that reason, AEP Ohio’s IT programming structure will require CRES providers to identify and classify the nature of each billing item, including whether each good or service is non-jurisdictional," AEP Ohio said

"Furthermore, in order to ensure adequate customer safeguards and compliance with Ohio Adm. Code 4901:1-33(H)(1) and 4901:1-18-03, CRES providers will not be able to offer or seek to combine jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional services for billing as a single item," AEP Ohio said

Case No. 21-1209-EL-WVR

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