Tue Feb 09 2010
By MARC KOVAC
C-N Capital Bureau
COLUMBUS -- State regulators have asked FirstEnergy, parent company of Toledo Edison, to submit revamped plans by the end of the month for the distribution of millions of energy efficient-light bulbs to its customers.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio wants to see an alternative proposal for the compact fluorescent light bulbs by Nov. 30, including specifics on how the CFLs will be issued and what the company intends to do to promote their installation and use.
Once that plan is in hand, PUCO will give interested parties a week to file their responses. FirstEnergy spokesman Ellen Raines said the company is developing the alternatives and would meet PUCO's deadline for filing.
Those alternatives include distributing CFLs to customers who request them, rather than delivering bulbs directly to all. The 3.5 million CFLs it already purchased remain stored in a warehouse pending the outcome.
"CFLs remain the best way to reduce energy usage both quickly and without a lot of cost and without any real changes in customers' lifestyles," Raines said. "... Changing a light bulb remains a relatively inexpensive and easy way to achieve energy savings."
But the plan will have an ultimate cost to customers. Raines said the company would seek cost recovery for its energy-efficiency initiatives.
"How much that's recovered and over what period of time is to be determined," she said.
The decision Wednesday came a week after PUCO heard oral arguments on the controversial light bulb plan, which caused an outcry among customers when they learned of the costs involved and prompted PUCO chairman Alan Schriber to stop FirstEnergy's planned distribution to its residential and some small business customers.
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