Oklahoma regulators will deal Thursday with a move by Oklahoma Gas and Electric to delay an immediate recovery of its $1 billion in February winter storm costs.
Corporation Commissioners, in their 9:30 a.m. meeting will consider and possibly vote on OGE’s request for financial securitization of the winter storm costs. The utility made the request in April.
Under such a request, (Cause No. PUD 202100072) OGE would be allowed to take an additional two years to consider financing of such storm costs and how they would affect rates of consumers. The request was filed in April after the Oklahoma legislature adopted the February 2021 Regulated Utility Consumer Protection Act which allows customer impact to be “lessened by utilization of the securitization process.”
As OGE stated in its request, “That statute was specifically crafted by the Oklahoma Legislature and enacted by the Governor to securitize the 2021 Winter Weather Event costs incurred by utilities like OG&E and allow for the issuance of
bonds so that customers can pay their utility bills at a lower amount over a longer period.”
In seeking the securitization, the utility explained that under normal circumstances, it would include most costs associated with the 2021 winter weather even in its fuel cost adjustment, but doing so “would create a burden (i.e., bill impact) too excessive for customers, as it would require costs to be recovered over the remainder of 2021.”
To avoid such a prospect, OG&E has proposed recovery of its costs over an amortized period of 10 years.