Last week, the Ohio PUC opened up a new proceeding to consider consumer service options related to smart meters. The Commission issued a request for comments last week – they’re due March 14th – on the following subjects and related matters:
- Whether distribution utilities and competitive retailers should offer dynamic pricing
- Whether they should offer pre-payment service
- How information about these choices could be made available to consumers
- Development of a standard approach for consumers to compare price options
- Whether distributors should offer a two-part tariff, part fixed and part dynamic
- What barriers there are to offering these options
- What a secure and private online application for comparing price options might look like
The Commission is not requesting comments on whether more smart meters should be deployed, only on these service options for customers that do have the meters already. The OPUC will also hold a technical conference.
The OPUC order is available at http://www.energymarketers.com/Documents/oh_time_diff_dynamic_pricing_entry.pdf