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“Pursuant to Ohio Adm. Code 4901-1-12, Ohio Power Company (AEP Ohio) hereby requests approval to end the Supplier Consolidated Billing Program. As explained in the attached Memorandum in Support, the expense and resources associated with the program are no longer justified and the pilot has not proven effective.”

“The SCB Pilot Program was initially included as part of a Stipulation in Case No. 14- 1693-EL-RDR. AEP Ohio was directed to work with Staff and the signatory parties to develop parameters for the SCB Pilot Program. The SCB Pilot program was originally available to all CRES that were signatories to the 14-1693-EL-RDR Stipulation, which was approved on March 31, 2016, resulting in three available suppliers. See, Id. As a result of a subsequent settlement, in an April 25, 2018, Opinion & Order in Case No. 16-1852-EL-SSO, the Commission added terms and conditions to the SCB Pilot Program including a $2 million cap on expenditures, an initial collection fee rate of 0.66% of AEP Ohio Receivables, and expanding the number of permissible supplier participants from three to five. See, Case No. 16-1852-EL-SSO, Opinion and Order at ¶ 119 (April 25, 2018).” 

“The SCB Pilot Program began on November 6, 2019. Even though five suppliers were approved to participate in the SCB Pilot Program, only two submitted applications to the Commission for approval of their bill format — Constellation and Direct Energy Services. Both bill formats were approved; however, Constellation was the only suppler to actively participate in the program. While the costs to build the SCB Pilot Program were capped at $2 million ($1 million funded by AEP Ohio and $1 million funded by the 5 original suppliers), AEP Ohio’s incurred costs were almost double the $1 million the Company was required to fund.”

“AEP Ohio agreed to track customer complaints, number of customers participating in the SCB Pilot Program and customers that returned to AEP Ohio billing. These statistics were reported to Staff monthly beginning in July 2020, the first month Constellation signed up customers for SCB. Since the inception of the monthly statistics reporting, there have been no complaints received by AEP Ohio from customers related to bill issues for the SCB bill format or complaints about the format or confusion with the bill for the entirety of the SCB Pilot Program. On a monthly basis, the total number of SCB requests received were tracked and provided to Staff. The largest cumulative number of customers participating in the SCB Pilot Program was 727 during the November 2021 reporting period. At Staff’s request, AEP Ohio continued the reporting after the SCB Pilot Program period to track the participation numbers. For the most recent reporting period (February 2025), the cumulative number of customers continuing to receive supplier consolidated bills was 2. Additionally, AEP Ohio provided monthly statistics of customers that dropped SCB and Constellation as the supplier and those that dropped only SCB and kept Constellation.” 

“In order to avoid expending resources to maintain a program with limited or no benefits as evidenced by the limited number of participating suppliers and the minute number of customers that participated in the SCB Pilot Program (barely eclipsing 3.5% of the authorized cap), AEP Ohio requests an end to the SCB Pilot Program effective immediately. This request includes the monthly SCB billing, the manual work for calculation of the monthly supplier discount rate, and the manual daily account review and audit control documentation. AEP Ohio anticipates that the final discount payment will be made to Constellation on May 1, 2025, with the final SCB customer being switched from Constellation’s SCB supply on March 28, 2025.”

Motion To End Supplier Consolidated Billing Program  (03/27/2025)
21-1150-EL-UNC
(AEP Ohio Supplier Consolidated Billing Pilot) (11/05/2021)