One or two faithful readers know that Buster has been doing battle recently against AEP and the PUCO, protesting large rate hikes to our homeowners association, of which I'm treasurer. We have a number of AEP accounts, and most of our January electric bills were up 30%-40%. One was up 60%, and another up an incredible 450%. There was no advance notice.
Residential rates are largely unaffected. It seems that this rate increase falls almost entirely upon certain classes of "commercial rate tariffs" -- small businesses, schools, churches, homeowners associations and such. (Who knew our not-for-profit HOA was a commercial account? Not me, but I do now.)
AEP tries to justify the rate hike by claiming these commercial classes have forever been subsidized and priced well under-market. (I had no idea AEP was such a bunch of humanitarians -- the Mother Teresa of utilities.)
Just last week, an AEP rep told me with a smile that, according to her analysis, "that account will have an increase of only 63%." (Only 63%? What a fuckin' relief! I was afraid it was gonna go up 64%.)
A letter to me from the PUCO chairman explains that the "degree of increase depends on the customer's usage pattern." (Not the actual usage, you see, just the damn pattern.) The pattern they don't like is "low load, high demand" -- occasional high use, but mostly next to nothing. That describes our tennis court lights, the one that went up 450%. Our annual usage at the court is 350 KWH. Annual. (In contrast, our household used 25,000 KWH last year.) The December bill for 0 KWH at the court was $12. The January bill, also for 0 KWH, was $67. For nothing. Because of our pattern.
And while small businesses and dinky outfits like our HOA deal get clobbered with this shit, the new AEP rate plan gives large companies big decreases in electric rates. (Ringing any familiar bells?)
The guiding hand behind this deal is John-Boy, the Wonder Guv. This is all part of his grand scheme to make Ohio "business friendly" and a "low-cost energy state." Except he neglected to mention what he really meant was "friendly and low-cost for the large corporations. 'Cause I have favors to repay. And if it screws the little guy, well, oops!"
Reminds me of his pet project, SB 5. He thunders and blunders and thrashes around, trying to please his big business backers, but succeeds mainly in pissing off most of the middle class. Then he has to shift into full back-pedal, damage-control mode.
That's where he is now with this current PR disaster. After initially saying it was a done deal, like or lump it, now, after much outcry and hundreds of formal complaints, Kasich and AEP and the PUCO are suddenly "sensitive to the negative impacts" and are "addressing" our concerns. Well, friggin' goody.
This truly is a stinky deal. I've made some small headway in dealing with AEP, but the entire rate plan needs a do-over, and we need a group effort. If you're an affected AEP commercial customer, please contact AEP, the PUCO, the governor, and your state representatives and lodge a complaint.
Reminds me of his pet project, SB 5. He thunders and blunders and thrashes around, trying to please his big business backers, but succeeds mainly in pissing off most of the middle class. Then he has to shift into full back-pedal, damage-control mode.
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