FERC on Oct. 29 granted a complaint by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) filed against FirstEnergy and PJM alleging the utility overcharged it and asking for $18.6 million in refunds (EL24-121). 

FirstEnergy’s Potomac Edison bills ODEC’s load in its territory through PJM based on information the RTO gets from the utility. The complaint alleged that FirstEnergy overcharged ODEC from July 2022 through the end of 2023 by including the load of Front Royal, Va., in the calculations when the co-op does not serve that municipality. 

The utilities tried to work out the issue on their own, but FirstEnergy wanted to resettle the entire region because other utilities were undercharged, while ODEC wanted it taken care of bilaterally. FirstEnergy also wanted to pay ODEC only when it got money back from the other entities involved, but by the time the complaint was filed, it had not received any. 

ODEC said it did not consent to FirstEnergy imposing the condition that it must resettle with all suppliers prior to providing it with refunds, FERC said. 

The complaint asked FERC to find that ODEC was mischarged and that FirstEnergy failed to meet its obligation to timely effect a financial resettlement with PJM, and to direct repayment. 

FirstEnergy argued that it was taking the proper steps to fix the mischarges and was working with the rest of the impacted entities to resettle, pursuant to PJM’s rules for resettlements. The only reason ODEC did not get any refunds was that it declined to take partial payments as the resettlement of the zone was occurring, the company argued. 

ODEC said the rules do not require FirstEnergy to resettle the entire zone before paying back all that it owes the co-op. PJM agreed with this assessment in comments filed on the dispute. 

FERC agreed that ODEC was overbilled because of the inclusion of Front Royal’s load, which led to it paying more than it owed for energy, capacity and transmission charges. 

“FirstEnergy’s action in misattributing Front Royal’s load to ODEC was a violation of the filed rate,” FERC said. “Therefore, we grant the complaint and find that ODEC is entitled to reimbursement of the overcharges. … 

“Nothing in the record supports FirstEnergy’s assertion that resettlement is required before providing a refund to ODEC. Indeed, PJM states in its answer to FirstEnergy’s answer that the PJM tariff and PJM processes do not require that FirstEnergy first resettle the entire wholesale market in its zone before refunding ODEC.” 

Nothing in PJM’s rules applies to the situation in the complaint, so FERC said it was using its discretion to direct FirstEnergy to file a repayment plan to make ODEC whole plus interest within 60 days of the order’s issuance. FirstEnergy will have to discuss the plan with ODEC and indicate in that filing whether it has agreed on a plan with the co-op or explain why that did not happen.