AEP-Ohio’s electric rates include a Provider of Last Resort (POLR) charge that was intended to compensate AEP for the risk of both customer migration to retail electric suppliers and customers returning to AEP for generation services. Several parties, including the Industrial Energy Users – Ohio, challenged this charge in court. In April, the Ohio Supreme Court directed the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to reconsider the appropriateness of the POLR charge. The PUCO recently determined that the POLR charges are not appropriate. The PUCO directed AEP to refund the amount of POLR charges collected since June of 2011 by credits on customer bills beginning in November. You may read more about this in this article from the Columbus Dispatch: Credits coming for AEP customers
