On February 1, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved an agreement relating to AEP’s application to implement Phase 2 of its gridSMART Project. Key provisions of the approved agreement include:

• AEP will work with a third party to quantify the operational impacts of DG on its distribution system and identify additional changes needed for the distribution system to accommodate greater DG penetration.
• Over the next four years, AEP will install 894,000 smart meters.
• Over the next two years, AEP will develop a competitive retail electric supplier (CRES) AMI interval data portal to allow CRES providers to offer more strategic and competitive TOU options and programs. AEP will also provide a customer web portal that displays the customer’s AMI interval usage data on a next-day basis.
• AEP will work with CRES and PUCO staff to implement a time-of-use (TOU) transition plan.
• AEP will propose a simple, two-tier, non-technology TOU rate for AMI customers to be used if the CRES TOU market has, in PUCO’s judgment, not evolved to be sufficiently competitive.
• AEP will provide residential and small business customers access to a “Green Button” download.