Puco

ThePublic Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)has fined Columbia Gas of Ohio $200,000 for a March 2015 home explosion in Upper Arlington, a suburb of the state capitol Columbus. Under an agreement reached with regulators, the company must also take steps to improve record keeping and enhance safety outreach throughout its service territory. A PUCO investigation revealed that an old natural gas service line leading to the home was replaced, but it was not properly disconnected from Columbia’s main line. A curb valve to the old line was misidentified as a water valve and when it was turned on, gas flowed into the house and ignited. While various parties were involved in causing the accident, PUCO staff concluded that Columbia did not follow its operating procedures to properly abandon an old service line. PUCO said the explosion caused an estimated $9 million in property damage. The company must pay the fine to the state’s general revenue fund and hold an additional $200,000 in abeyance should it fail to fulfill its obligations under the agreement.

Dynegy Inc. on Tuesday again lashed out at American Electric Power Co. and FirstEnergy Corp.’s proposed power purchase agreements with Ohio regulators, offering an alternative and saying it could save the state’s consumers billions of dollars by providing power at lower costs and building more natural gas-fired power plants.

American Electric Power Co. Inc. subsidiary AEP Ohio has reached a power purchase agreement with state regulators and other stakeholders that would help keep its uncompetitive plants running, convert others to natural gas and more than double renewable energy capacity.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) on Thursday took the unusual step of publicly announcing that it had filed extensive comments with FERC imploring the Commission to more closely examine the market impacts that resulted from last winter’s unseasonable cold and high natural gas prices.

Columbia Gas of Ohio Friday filed its gas cost recovery (GCR) adjustment for December with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), registering a more than 50% drop from December of last year. The GCR of 49 cents/100 cubic feet (1 Ccf) of gas will be 70 cents, or 59%, lower than December 2008 when it was $1.19/Ccf.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) on Wednesday conditionally approved Columbia Gas of Ohio’s plan to give Toledo-area retail gas marketers exclusive access to Maumee citygate capacity. State regulators said the company can grant the Toledo marketers exclusive access to the capacity if the utility company absorbs any cost increases that would have been passed on to retail customers taking utility gas supply.