Statehouse Weighing ‘Regulated’ Electric Generation, Say Critics; OEG Denies Claim

State lawmakers are weighing the full “reregulation” of Ohio electric utilities backed by the state’s top industries, a former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chairman and free-market advocates charge. An Ohio Energy Group (OEG) proposal circulating the Statehouse counters that a return to utility-owned power plants would allow for competitive retail electric service (CRES) on which most Ohioans rely and would not revive the vertically integrated electric monopolies existing prior to 123-SB3 (Johnson).

Former PUCO Chair Todd Snitchler, president and CEO of the national organization representing competitive market providers, Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) in Washington, D.C., delivered the main address at an Ohio Manufacturers’ Energy Conference sponsored by the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) and featuring a series of discussions with President John Bowring of PJM Interconnection’s Independent Market Monitor (IMM), Monitoring Analytics in Philadelphia; CEO John Seryak of energy consulting and engineering firm RunnerStone in Worthington; partner Susanne Buckley of competitive electric and gas broker Scioto Energy in Columbus; President and CEO Karen Onaran of Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON), also in Washington, D.C.; and Policy Director Devin Hartman of R Street Institute in Washington, D.C., among others…

Hartman observed that power plant operators who compete for a living will continue to “make better decisions” than monopoly generators would under reregulation.

“It’s hard to be polite about this: It would be a train wreck,” he said of the OEG proposal.