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As Enrolled, SB103 bill allows alternative rate plans aimed primarily at gas utilities.  Among other things this bill addresses forecasted test periods and creates alternative rate plan pathways for natural gas companies to serve large loads.

This bill became effective on March 20, 2026

This bill expands who may use a “forecasted test period” and prescribes how it works allowing electric light, natural gas, water-works, and sewage-disposal companies may file a single application proposing base rates for three consecutive 12-month periods. For each period, the Commission trues up forecasted plant, revenues, and expenses to actuals through a Commission-approved recovery mechanism and includes only “used and useful” rate-base components; after the third period, the company must file a new rate case under R.C. 4909.18.

The bill also makes number of procedural changes. It bars approval of additional riders or other capital-cost recovery mechanisms for utilities using a forecasted test period and terminates previously approved capital riders once rates based on that forecast take effect; a natural-gas infrastructure development rider under R.C. 4929.161 is excepted. It also requires each natural gas company with ≥250,000 customers to file a rate-case application by December 31, 2029, and at least every three years thereafter, and provides timelines for temporary increases/decreases and Commission action on applications.

The bill also creates an alternative rate plan pathway for natural gas companies that have applied for or been approved for an infrastructure development rider to serve “large load customers,” defined as customers consuming (projected or actual) more than 1,200,000 Mcf in any 12-month period. The plan must support commercial agreements with such customers and include protections so other customers do not bear direct or indirect costs—including stranded costs—of infrastructure associated with the large load customer. It also requires a monthly cost credit, determined in a separate proceeding and tied to the infrastructure development rider rate, to compensate other customers for the large load customer’s use of the system, and requires a letter of support from an economic development entity.

Under these alternative rate plans, payments from large load customers under approved commercial agreements are excluded from revenue in Chapter 4909 proceedings; applications approved under the new sections are not treated as rate-increase applications. Commercial agreements filed with the Commission are automatically approved unless disapproved within 90 days and may contain negotiated terms differing from the company’s most recent rate-case terms; alternative rate plan applications are deemed approved after 90 days (subject to suspension for good cause, with deemed approval if no order issued within 90 days after suspension). Finally, a company with an approved (or deemed-approved) alternative rate plan must file a Commission-prescribed statement agreeing that costs associated with the plan or related commercial agreements will not be recovered from other customers and that base rates will not increase as a direct or indirect result.