AEP responds to Ohio capacity case decision

"While it is disappointing that the PUCO did not fully recognize the value of AEP Ohio's generation in this case, todayÂ’s decision is just one part of the process to determine a path to competition in Ohio. This path must provide both benefits for customers and a transition that maintains the financial integrity of AEP Ohio," Akins said. "It is clear that the PUCO recognized the relationship of this case with the pending Electric Security Plan case, and weÂ’ll look to that decision to more fully define the combined impacts of these orders."

The PUCO determined a generation capacity cost for AEP Ohio of $188.88 per megawatt-day. AEP OhioÂ’s actual cost of capacity is $355 per megawatt-day. The CommissionÂ’s order said that AEP Ohio must charge competitive retail electric service providers the Reliability Pricing Model RPM price currently $20.01 per megawatt-day, which is substantially below both AEPÂ’s actual cost of capacity and the PUCO-determined capacity cost.

Competitive retail electric service providers use AEP Ohio’s generating capacity to serve their customers. The PUCO indicated that AEP Ohio will be allowed to defer – under a method and over a period of time to be determined in AEP Ohio’s pending Electric Security Plan ESP case – the difference between the PUCO-determined capacity cost and the RPM price for recovery. An order in that case is expected in early August.

The PUCO postponed implementation of the recent order until Aug. 8 or until an order is issued in AEP OhioÂ’s pending ESP case, whichever is sooner.

AEP Ohio provides electricity to nearly 1.5 million customers of major AEP subsidiaries Ohio Power Company in Ohio and Wheeling Power Company in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. AEP Ohio is based in Gahanna, Ohio, and is a unit of American Electric Power.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nationÂ’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 39,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nationÂ’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.

AEPÂ’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas.