DP&L rate deal lauded by Ohio regulators

Average customer’s bill rises over $2.60 a month in proposed settlement.

Ohio regulators are hailinga proposed settlement that raises Dayton Power & Light’s electric distribution rates and could lead to a more than $2.60 a month increase in the average customer’s bill.

In its recommendation, the staff at Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said it was pleased with the agreement, noting that rates will go up, but not as high as DP&L originally wished. The settlement still must be approved by the PUCO board.

“Rarely has the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio been presented with a stipulation with such breadth of support,” PUCO staff said in a recent filing.

The settlement or “stipulation” cut a requested revenue increase for DP&L of $65.7 million to a stipulated increase of $29.7 million, staff said in the filing.

It reflects last year’s federal corporate tax cuts. And it says DP&L must develop “innovative electric vehicle charging infrastructure and a non-wires pilot program.”

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, Kroger, Walmart, Sam’s Club, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups all agreed to the rate settlement, the filing said.

The settlement establishes a $7 monthly customer charge for DP&L’s residential customers, which is lower than both the $13.73 customer charge sought in DP&L’s application and the $7.88 customer charge recommended in the staff ’s own report.

“These benefits are exten- sive and unique,” PUCO staff wrote. “The revenue requirement goes down, the tax adjustment problem is fixed to the extent possible cur- rently, the rate of return is reduced (and) the customer charge decreases.”

In June, DP&L said it had filed a stipulation in its distribution rate case with the PUCO, which was signed by 15 parties and PUCO staff.

If the new settlement for DP&L’s distribution charges is ultimately approved by the commission, bills for con- sumers who use 1,000 kilo- watt-hours of power a month will go up $2.64 a month.

A PUCO spokesman said the only parties opposed to the settlement were Interstate Gas Supply Inc. and the Retail Energy Supply Association.

In its brief, t he Retail Energy Supply Association urged the commission to take a harder look at certain costs and expenses DP&L claims to have.

“Typically it is not enough to take a utility’s word for what those expense and revenue figures are; in this case, however, staff did exactly that,” the association said in its brief.

DP&L did not immediately respond to questions about its expected investment in area electric vehicle infrastructure.

In a statement, DP&L said the settlement positions it to become the energy company “of the future.”