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FERC denies AEP’s request for a rehearing on federal tariff violationBy
2010-02-19
“This is a significant victory for our state’s industrial companies served by PSO and hopefully the end of a very long and complex legal battle,” said Tom Schroedter, executive director of OIEC, an association of companies with facilities in Oklahoma that advocates for lowest, reasonable cost energy prices. “After years of work, it appears that the issues associated with AEP’s tariff violation have been put to rest and that the majority of the $54.4 million due AEP-PSO customers will be returned by the end of this month.”
In November 2008, following years of protracted litigation, the FERC ruled that American Electric Power Corp. violated a federal tariff in its method of calculating trading margins between June 2000 and March 2006. The FERC directed AEP to recalculate and reallocate the trading margins in compliance with AEP’s System Integration Agreement and to issue appropriate refunds within 30 days of the date of issuance of such ruling to PSO customers. AEP filed a motion to reconsider this ruling. This week, FERC denied that motion. As a result of OIEC’s efforts, nearly all of the money due Oklahoma businesses related to this FERC ruling will be refunded by the end of this month.
“Our efforts to return to Oklahoma businesses what is rightly due to them paid off after all these years,” said Schroedter. “Our member businesses are reaping the benefits of our tireless pursuit of what is fair and reasonable for PSO’s customers.”
The original violation stemmed from AEP’s wrongful allocation of trading margins among AEP’s nine utilities nationwide between June 2000 and March 2006.
OIEC represents industrial companies with thousands of employees across the state. The organization works to ensure just and reasonable utility rates for OIEC members based upon the utilities’ cost of providing service to those members. OIEC has been active on behalf of industrial and other large consumers of energy for more than 15 years, successfully advocating for utility cost reductions or avoidance of utility cost increases for its member companies. For more information on OIEC, call Tom Schroedter at (918) 594-0400.
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