By Ted Caddell
American Electric Power celebrated increased second-quarter profits last week, but the company said it still needs the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to approve the so-called “guaranteed rate” plan it and other utilities have asked for to support its generating plants.
The company reported net income of $430 million, up from $390 million for the same quarter last year. CEO Nicholas Akins credited increased industrial load, partly from the oil and gas industries associated with Utica and Marcellus shale fields.
He also noted the approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of PJM’s Capacity Performance proposal and said that despite that commission “throwing a wrench in in the plans for at least a supplemental auction being held next week,” the company intends to participate in the delayed Base Residual Auction. (See FERC Orders PJM to Include DR, EE in Transition Auctions.)
The auction, he said, “will ultimately help define the forward view of generation value.”
“The supplemental auction remains important to our risk-adjusted 2016 performance,” he added.
Akins said the pending decision on guaranteed income in Ohio, in which PUCO would set rates for its generating plants to secure the future of those stations, is crucial to the company.
“We would not have presented the [power purchase agreement] option through the commission if we did not think it was important,” he said. “It’s about volatility of electric pricing — particularly in extreme heat or extreme cold — that impacts all customers’ pocketbooks.
“Continual delays are not the answer. It’s time for the PUCO to do the right thing,” he said. “It’s important for Ohio and its energy policy, Ohio jobs, taxes, economic development, and in fact, the future of the generation business in Ohio.”
AEP has been joined by Duke Energy and FirstEnergy is asking for income guarantees for certain of its plants. AEP had another, smaller-scale plan before PUCO that was denied. But the commission has not yet ruled on any of the other requests before it.
In May, new PUCO Chairman Andre Porter said a decision was several months out. “My focus is to ensure that we do whatever is best for Ohio,” Porter said. “Our state will be most successful, in my view, with a commission that confronts the biggest challengers.”
But Akins said a ruling from PUCO is critical for all involved, and he expressed frustration at the delay. “It just looks like it is some continued delay really,” he told one analyst during the conference call. “We don’t seem to be getting answers or schedules or the things we need to be able to get the answers we’re looking for. They seem to be putting some of the decisions further out into the future.”
Critics, including consumer advocates and environmentalists, say that AEP’s plan undermines Ohio’s status as a deregulated state.
“In a situation like this, when a utility is buying power from an affiliate, you have to assume that the fix is in,” Rob Kelter, senior attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center, told The Columbus Dispatch.