Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony is not finished with his continuing efforts to get to the bottom of the excessive fuel costs that led to the controversial securitization of the 2021 winter storm costs by utilities in Oklahoma.
He is raising many more questions in his desire to get answers about costs and why consumers are paying for them.
He intends to raise the subject again at Tuesday’s 1:30 p.m. meeting of the 3-member commission, pointing to what he says are millions of dollars in cost discrepancies stemming from the securitization. and the issuance of billions of dollars in ratepayer-backed bonds.
The agenda for the meeting reflected Anthony’s latest request of the Commission’s Public Utilities Division for an update on any audit or investigation the PUD has undertaken of the cost discrepancies. He also wants to learn whether any corrective action has been proposed to “the revenue requirement for the first semi-annual true-up adjustment” to the Winter Event Securitization amount collected from OG&E, ONG and PSO ratepayers on their monthly bills.
His agenda request pointed out that the Final Financing Orders for the three utilities speciated that the WES Charge will be adjusted semi-annually and that it has been six months or more since each utility’s bonds were issued.
“The orders also each specified that “the ODFA and the Utility will submit to the Commission, by submitting to PUD, a final accounting of their respective issuance costs,” wrote the commissioner in asking for the financial update.
“Depending on whether those “actual issuance costs” were less or more than “the issuance costs included in the principal amount financed,” the orders each specified that “the revenue requirement for the first semi-annual true-up adjustment”
be corrected accordingly,” he added.
Anthony took note that the PUD received the required “Issuance Advice Letters” signed by the utility and the president of the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority reported that in total the Actual Issuance Costs for the three bond sales exceeded $38 million, all of which was passed along to ratepayers.
Commissioner Anthony has suggested that if he feels the explanations from the PUD are not complete and satisfactory, he intends to suggest potential remedies to the multi-million-dollar problem.
The item is the last matter on the agenda.