Dive Brief:

• Ohio regulators listened for more than three hours as attorneys debated whether American Electric Power should be able to to guarantee income from a small, aging coal facility.
• The case is one of several similar proceedings before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, and the decision could signal how the commission would rule on other requests.
• In addition to AEP, which has another, larger power purchase agreement also proposed, FirstEnergy and Duke Energy have also requested regulators guarantee income from their plants, arguing that the generation will be cheaper for consumers in the long run.

Dive Insight:

Ohio regulators listened for hours to oral arguments, and according to Columbus Business First most participants oppose AEP's plan. The proposal has been contentious, with environmental advocates saying it amounts to little more than a bailout for coal.

But according to the utilities, taking the plants offline would threaten reliability. And while they concede consumers would pay more initially, they say in the long-term there are benefits.

But in Duke Energy's similar case, The Sierra Club recently filed testimony determining the arrangement would not be beneficial to ratepayers in the next 10 years and is not in line with the state's move towards competitive markets.

A decision could come in the first quarter of next year.