The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio took a step toward ‘advanced energy’—renewable solutions to the problems facing the Ohio electricity industry—with its much anticipated rule changes announced in April.

Although PUCO’s ruling mostly sets the stage for further study of, for example, how to connect (and fairly compensate) renewable energy producers to the grid (aka interconnection), it can be seen as a positive course correction to the market failures of deregulation. Or, as Richard Stuebi, Cleveland Foundation’s new energy czar puts it:

“Any actions that facilitate new entrants coming into the electricity marketplace will be good for healthy energy markets, will be good for reducing customers’ expenditures on energy, and will be good for the environment.”

The changes PUCO calls for include:

• Institute a voluntary stakeholder process to consider an advanced energy portfolio standard for Ohio.
• Expand the technologies allowed for net metering and revise the rules regarding customer credits for interconnection.
• Require Ohio’s electric distribution companies to file within 30 days reports which address the impacts of distributed generation on their transmission and distribution systems, a copy of sections of their tariffs that include daily time sensitive rates, and a comprehensive list of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technologies and corresponding costs.
• Revise the interconnection rules to ensure a standardized process in Ohio and a broader multi-state region for interconnection service customers, and have the review process for customer-owned distribution be based on the level of generation.
• Direct PUCO staff to develop a checklist and a standard application for interconnection.
• Conduct a workshop to discuss the issue of statewide pooling of stand-by power.

Stuebi and others have called for a statewide renewable energy portfolio standard—a rule requiring producers like First Energy to generate a percentage of electric power from renewable resources such as wind, solar or biomass.

To read about an energy reform agenda for Ohio, including comments and recommendations leading up to the PUCO ruling.