Dominion East Ohio Standard Choice Offer Customers Will Pay NYMEX Market Price With No Additional Retail Price Adjustment According To PUCO Supplier Auction Results

CLEVELAND, Feb. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion East Ohio customers who purchase natural gas at the Standard Choice Offer (SCO) and Standard Service Offer (SSO) rates will pay the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) market price, without any additional Retail Price Adjustment cost, effective April 1, 2017, through  March 31, 2018.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) today approved the results of the February 21, 2016, auction, in which four suppliers submitted successful bids with a Retail Price Adjustment of $0.00 per Mcf, to serve about 182,000 SCO customers and 129,000 SSO customers, out of Dominion East Ohio's overall 1.2 million customers. 

This year's SCO auction result is a 5 cents-per-thousand-cubic-feet (Mcf) increase from the previous Retail Price Adjustment of negative 5 cents (in effect, a 5-cent credit) per Mcf set in the 2016 auction.

Under PUCO rules, the names of the winning suppliers will remain confidential for 15 days to protect the suppliers' positions in contract negotiations with pipeline companies.

Under SCO service, residential customers eligible to participate in the company's Energy Choice program, who do not purchase gas from a participating supplier or participate in a governmental aggregation program, are assigned randomly to a participating SCO supplier. The SSO covers those customers who are not eligible to participate in Energy Choice, including participants in the Percentage of Income Payment Plan Plus program.

"Our auction produced yet another outstanding result for our customers," noted Jeff Murphy, Dominion East Ohio vice president and general manager.  "The combination of abundant natural gas supplies and supplier competition continue to position our market as one of the lowest-cost in the entire country. Low natural gas prices help household budgets and support economic development as well by making us a low-cost place to do business." 

The Standard Choice Offer process has helped customers save money, Murphy said. "It was just over ten years ago that we conducted the very first auction.  The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio played a key role in shaping that approach to securing low-cost natural gas for Dominion as well as several other natural gas utilities across the state."

Murphy added that the auction process demonstrated the competitive nature of the Energy Choice process and participating suppliers. "None of this would be possible if it weren't for the natural gas suppliers that participate in the auction and in our Energy Choice program," he said. "They compete aggressively for our customers' business and help save our customers a significant amount of money in the process." 

Customers can evaluate their options at www.dominiongaschoice.com, which provides interactive, one-stop shopping information. Dominion East Ohio supports the site, working with the PUCO, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC), natural gas suppliers and community organizations. To help consumers understand the costs and terms associated with certified natural gas suppliers' offers, the site offers such tools as links to the PUCO's "Apples to Apples" comparison chart (www.puco.ohio.gov, or 1-800-299-7271) or the OCC's "Comparing Your Energy Choices" chart (www.pickocc.org) and other objective comparison tools.

Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 26,400 megawatts of generation, 14,600 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,600 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more than 6 million utility and retail energy customers. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.

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SOURCE Dominion East Ohio