“This way, you have the gas company responding and ensuring the integrity of its system all the way to the customers’ appliances,” said Dave Rinebolt, executive director of Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy, which assists low-income energy customers statewide.
The cost to consumers of having utilities replace leaky gas lines or fittings is less than having to hire private contractors, Rinebolt said. State regulators allow the utilities to cover those costs by adding a surcharge to customers’ monthly bills.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-0 to affirm the PUCO’s approval of an agreement that consumer advocates, including the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel office, worked out with the PUCO staff and Columbia Gas of Ohio. The court rejected the argument of a private firm, Utility Service Partners Inc., that the PUCO’s decision to give exclusive repair authority to Columbia Gas would interfere with service contracts that the private company had sold to home and business owners to repair or replace defective gas lines.
The court said the PUCO’s action was an appropriate use of its authority to regulate utilities and protect the public from possible hazards. The PUCO acted after having studied prior natural gas line leaks and explosions.
That led the commission to direct Columbia Gas to assume responsibility for the service lines and to replace defective risers, which are the final above-ground connectors linking underground natural gas lines to gas meters.
Other utilities, including Duke Energy and Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio, have been replacing defective lines and risers under similar agreements. Vectren and Duke Energy said the court’s ruling supports the replacement programs the companies already have begun.
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