CLEVELAND, Feb. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion East
Ohio customers who purchase natural gas at the Standard Choice
Offer (SCO) and Standard Service Offer (SSO) rates will pay the New
York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) market price, without any
additional Retail Price Adjustment cost, effective April 1, 2017, through March 31, 2018.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) today approved the results of the
February 21, 2016, auction, in which
four suppliers submitted successful bids with a Retail Price
Adjustment of $0.00 per Mcf, to serve
about 182,000 SCO customers and 129,000 SSO customers, out of
Dominion East Ohio's overall 1.2 million customers.
This year's SCO auction result is a 5
cents-per-thousand-cubic-feet (Mcf) increase from the
previous Retail Price Adjustment of negative 5 cents (in effect, a 5-cent credit) per Mcf set in the 2016
auction.
Under PUCO rules, the names of the winning suppliers will remain
confidential for 15 days to protect the suppliers' positions in
contract negotiations with pipeline companies.
Under SCO service, residential customers eligible to participate
in the company's Energy Choice program, who do not purchase gas
from a participating supplier or participate in a governmental
aggregation program, are assigned randomly to a participating SCO
supplier. The SSO covers those customers who are not eligible
to participate in Energy Choice, including participants in the
Percentage of Income Payment Plan Plus program.
"Our auction produced yet another outstanding result for our
customers," noted Jeff Murphy,
Dominion East Ohio vice president and general manager. "The
combination of abundant natural gas supplies and supplier
competition continue to position our market as one of the
lowest-cost in the entire country. Low natural gas prices help
household budgets and support economic development as well by
making us a low-cost place to do business."
The Standard Choice Offer process has helped customers save
money, Murphy said. "It was just over ten years ago that we
conducted the very first auction. The Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio played a key
role in shaping that approach to securing low-cost natural gas for
Dominion as well as several other natural gas utilities across the
state."
Murphy added that the auction process demonstrated the
competitive nature of the Energy Choice process and participating
suppliers. "None of this would be possible if it weren't for the
natural gas suppliers that participate in the auction and in our
Energy Choice program," he said. "They compete aggressively for our
customers' business and help save our customers a significant
amount of money in the process."
Customers can evaluate their options at
www.dominiongaschoice.com, which provides interactive, one-stop
shopping information. Dominion East
Ohio supports the site, working with the PUCO, the Office of
the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC), natural gas suppliers and
community organizations. To help consumers understand the costs and
terms associated with certified natural gas suppliers' offers, the
site offers such tools as links to the PUCO's "Apples to Apples"
comparison chart (www.puco.ohio.gov, or 1-800-299-7271) or the
OCC's "Comparing Your Energy Choices" chart (www.pickocc.org) and
other objective comparison tools.
Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers
and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately
26,400 megawatts of generation, 14,600 miles of natural gas
transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,600 miles of
electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's
largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of
storage capacity and serves more than 6 million utility and retail
energy customers. For more information about Dominion, visit the
company's website at www.dom.com.
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SOURCE Dominion East Ohio