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Local
Companies | Article published December 20, 2002
Group seeks order for electric refunds
Davis-Besse parent firm targeted
By TOM
HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
OAK HARBOR - Ohio’s largest consumer group
yesterday urged the state utility commission to order a partial
refund of electric bills that FirstEnergy Corp. customers have paid
since the Davis-Besse nuclear plant began its extended outage Feb.
16.
Ohio Citizen Action claimed in a letter to the Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio that FirstEnergy is not entitled to all
of the "stranded costs" that the company incurred to help make the
transition into today’s deregulated electricity
market.
PUCO’s rationale for letting the company pass along
such costs was based on an assumption that its plants would remain
operational. Ratepayers deserve a break now that Davis-Besse is in
its 10th month of a shutdown and still without a guarantee it will
be restarted, according to Jennifer O’Donnell, Ohio Citizen Action’s
Akron area director.
"We want to get this on [the PUCO’s]
radar screen," she said.
The utilities commission did not
respond to the merit of the request. Spokesman Matt Butler said the
letter is being reviewed.
Stranded costs are those the PUCO
is allowing FirstEnergy to pass along for major investments, such as
Davis-Besse, that were made prior to deregulation.
PUCO
agreed in the summer of 2000 to let FirstEnergy recoup $8.8 billion
through Dec. 31, 2008 - but only for costs incurred prior to Jan. 1,
2001, when Ohio’s electricity market became deregulated and allowed
consumers to choose from among several suppliers, Mr. Butler
said.
That complicates the task of devising a formula for any
possible refund, officials said.
Ralph DiNicola, FirstEnergy
spokesman, claimed Ohio Citizen Action’s request is frivolous
because the enormous repair bill - some $150 million - that
FirstEnergy has incurred this year since Davis-Besse was shut down
can’t be passed along as stranded costs.
He accused Ohio
Citizen Action of distorting facts to generate publicity for its
door-to-door fund-raising campaign, an allegation the group
denied.
Ms. O’Donnell said her group wants the stranded-costs
issue revisited by PUCO because it’s "a legitimate concern [that
[FirstEnergy doesn’t] gouge ratepayers for a plant that’s not
generating electricity."
The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, an arm
of the attorney general’s office that serves as legal advocate for
the state’s residential utility customers, is intrigued by the
issue.
"We’ll be taking a look at it, just like we know the
PUCO will be taking a look at it," Ryan Lippe, counsel spokesman,
said.
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