The rate case is taking place as climate change drives more extreme weather, fueling concerns about reliability. The City of Lakewood, an intervening party, has previously filed complaints with regulators about frequent outages, even on days with fair weather. This summer, Lakewood was hit with blackouts that coincided with a heat wave likely made more severe by climate change.
“It’s really important that utilities not receive a blank check to collect more money from ratepayers without improvement in performance,” Rutschilling said. “As we see more frequent extreme weather and unpredictable weather, then that’s putting even more of a strain on the grid.”
Meanwhile, environmental and climate advocates want more financial support for low-income households to make energy-efficiency upgrades. They’re also pushing FirstEnergy to experiment with money-saving programs like residential demand response. Already employed by utilities elsewhere, that approach pays customers to dial down energy use when demand on the grid peaks.
Another idea for FirstEnergy is time-variable rates: Essentially, make electricity cheaper when demand is lower, incentivizing homes and businesses to shift their energy use to those hours. By next July, most of the territory served by the company’s utilities will already have smart meters that could track such use.
“With energy prices high on the commodity side, it’s important to see if there are opportunities working with FirstEnergy on the delivery side to find savings for customers,” said Robert Kelter, an attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Institute, which is also involved in the case.
So far, FirstEnergy appears to have a more limited view on what belongs in the rate proceedings.
“Because of what’s happening with affordability and what we need to do as a company, we need to balance what is in a rate case and what is not in a rate case. And right now we’re really trying to prioritize our reliability,” said Abigail Phillips, vice president and chief risk officer for FirstEnergy. Other issues might be folded in later once the company meets that priority, she added.
Additional intervenors include various business groups, local governments, and consumer-interest groups.
Regulators grant most motions to take part in rate cases, as long as they’re filed by the relevant deadline, which was Sept. 29. The parties have begun the fact-finding process, known as discovery.
Regulatory staff at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio will weigh in with their recommendations on FirstEnergy’s proposed plan by Nov. 30. Intervenors will then have until just before New Year’s Eve to object to any points in that staff report or to detail changes they want made to FirstEnergy’s plan. An evidentiary hearing — basically, an administrative trial — is set to start in March.
