Columbus, Ohio - Sept. 19, 2006

Ohio needs to plan for an affordable and environmentally sound energy future by designing and enacting a portfolio of diverse electricity options that will better serve residents and businesses over the long-term, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC) announced today.

"This energy plan will help move Ohio forward to ensure that sufficient and affordable electricity supplies are available to residents and businesses, and help increase our state's energy independence," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, Consumers' Counsel. "Rate plans previously enacted by state regulators only serve as temporary measures. Ohioans deserve a comprehensive energy plan for the future that will keep pace with forecasted growth in electric usage while providing consumers with greater price certainty."

Today, the OCC issued its Integrated Portfolio Management plan which, if implemented, would meet the following goals:

* Develop a portfolio of both short- and long-term electric generation as well as energy efficiency and other demand-related options that better provide for the management of rates.

* Diversify the generation sources used to supply electricity to Ohioans and provide market-based incentives to develop new resources, including clean coal technology and renewable power. Energy efficiency programs to reduce customers' demand would also be designed and implemented.

* Encourage the construction of these new generation resources while effectively placing a cap on costs to ensure that utilities and other energy companies maximize efficiencies and minimize potential cost overruns, which plagued many of Ohio's power plant projects in the 1970s and 1980s.

* Reduce price volatility and provide more certainty to energy-intensive businesses, which face major economic decisions about plant locations and job retention.

Based on the OCC's plan, long-term forecast reports would be filed by the electric utilities estimating how much power would be needed for the next 20 years as well as a plan to meet that demand. These reports were produced by the utilities prior to Ohio's 1999 electric choice law and this requirement would need to be reinstituted by the General Assembly.

With the forecast reports serving as a benchmark for short- and long-term demand needs for electricity, auctions would be conducted to meet a selected portfolio of supply and demand options. Suppliers could include independent power producers, generation affiliates of Ohio's electric utilities and various providers of programs designed to reduce demand. Customers' rates would be a blend of the various short- and long-term auction prices submitted by different suppliers.

"The plan we have introduced would bring diversity and long-term energy planning to Ohio," Migden-Ostrander said. "Consumers would be protected from the rate shock that can occur when a utility's electric generation is heavily dependent on one type of fuel or method of generating energy. Competitively bidding for power, encouraging the usage of renewable energy and reducing the demand for electricity through energy efficiency programs would benefit our state far into the future."

Based on the forecast reports, if construction of a new power plant is needed, a utility's plan could include the project and a competitive bid would determine the lowest cost builder. For example, if a forecast filed in 2009 showed that 600 megawatts of new electricity generation would be needed in 2015, a winning supplier would have six years to obtain financing and build the plant. The costs would be recovered through the sale of electricity once the plant began serving customers.

About the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel

The Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC), the residential utility consumer advocate, represents the interests of 4.5 million households in proceedings before state and federal regulators and in the courts. The state agency provides information and responds to consumers' questions about their electric, natural gas, telephone and water services. To receive utility information, request brochures or schedule a presentation, residential consumers may call 1-877-PICKOCC (1-877-742-5622) toll free in Ohio or visit the OCC website at www.pickocc.org.