OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 6 Final Analysis
133rd General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 6’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Passed by the General Assembly
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Callender and Wilkin
Effective date: October 22, 2019
Effective Date:
Niyah Walters, Attorney UPDATED VERSION
SUMMARY
Payments for in-state nuclear and in-state renewable resources
Customer charges
 Requires each electric distribution utility (EDU) to collect a per-customer monthly
charge from all of its retail electric customers in Ohio beginning January 1, 2021, and
ending December 31, 2027, that is sufficient to produce:
 $150 million annually for total disbursements from the Nuclear Generation Fund;
and
 $20 million annually for total disbursements from the Renewable Generation Fund.
 Requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) to determine the method by which the
revenue is allocated or assigned to each EDU for billing and collection, provided that the
method is based on (1) the relative number of customers, (2) the relative quantity of
kilowatt hour sales, or (3) a combination of the two.
 Requires the level and structure of the charge to be authorized by PUCO through a
process that PUCO must determine is not for an increase in any rate, joint rate, toll,
classification, charge, or rental.
 Requires the charge to be for bills rendered beginning January 1, 2021, and ending
December 31, 2027, not to exceed the following:
 Residential: 85¢;
 This version updates the effective date.
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 Industrial customers that exceeded 45 million kilowatt hours of electricity at one
location in the preceding year, $2,400.
 Requires the level and design of the charge or charges for nonresidential customers that
do not exceed 45 million kilowatt hours of electricity to be established in a way that
avoids abrupt or excessive bill impacts for typical customers.
 Requires authorized charges to be subject to reconciliation of actual revenue collected
with revenue needed to meet the revenue requirements.
 Authorizes EDUs to adopt accounting practices to facilitate reconciliation of revenue
collected.
 Authorizes the charges to be extended beyond December 31, 2027, for purposes of
reconciliation.
 Creates the Nuclear Generation Fund and the Renewable Generation Fund, where the
above charges are to be deposited (88.25% of charges into the Nuclear Generation Fund
and 11.75% into the Renewable Generation Fund).
 Requires the State Treasurer to distribute the money from the Nuclear Generation Fund
and Renewable Generation Fund in accordance with directions provided by the Ohio Air
Quality Development Authority, who must consult with PUCO.
 Requires any amount remaining in the Nuclear Generation Fund or Renewable
Generation Fund as of December 31, 2027, minus remittances that are required to be
made by January 21, 2028, to be refunded to customers in a manner determined by the
Authority in consultation with PUCO.
In-state nuclear
 Permits an owner or operator of an in-state nuclear resource to apply, not later than
February 1, 2020, to the Authority to receive quarterly payments from the Nuclear
Generation Fund for nuclear resource credits it earned.
 Requires the application to include certain financial, operational, and risk information
pertaining to the resource.
 Requires the Authority to review and approve the application by March 31, 2020, if the
resource meets the act’s definition, if the application meets the application
requirements, and if the resource’s operator maintains both a principal place of
business in Ohio and a substantial presence in Ohio with regard to its business
operations, offices, and transactions.
 Specifies that all financial and proprietary information, including trade secrets,
submitted to the Authority for application purposes is confidential and is not a public
record.
 Requires the owner or operator of the nuclear resource to report its electricity
production not later than seven days after the close of each quarter.
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 Requires the reported production to be in accordance with data from the generation
attribute tracking system designated by the Authority.
 Requires the Authority to issue one nuclear resource credit to the nuclear resource for
each megawatt hour reported and approved by the Authority.
 Sets the price of a nuclear resource credit at $9 per megawatt hour, subject to reduction
as provided in the act.
 Beginning April 2021 and ending January 2028, requires the Authority every quarter and
by the 21st of the month, to direct the State Treasurer to remit money from the Nuclear
Generation Fund to pay for the credits earned by the resource during the previous
quarter.
 If money in the Nuclear Generation Fund is insufficient, requires the Authority to direct
the State Treasurer to remit money from the fund not later than 21 days after the close
of any quarter in which an owner or operator was not fully compensated, to pay for the
unpaid credits.
 Requires a retrospective management and financial review of the owner or operator of
a nuclear resource to be conducted annually beginning in 2021 and ending in 2027 not
later than May 1 each year.
 Permits PUCO to retain consultants and advisors to perform all or any portion of the
annual review, the cost of which is to be paid from the Nuclear Generation Fund.
 Allows the owner or operator of a nuclear resource to provide PUCO or PUCO’s
consultants or advisors with any information the owner or operator chooses.
 Requires the owner or operator to respond promptly and fully to any document,
information, data, or other request by PUCO or PUCO’s consultants or advisors, and
provides that material failure to do so will result in suspension of payments for nuclear
resource credits until the failure is cured to PUCO’s satisfaction.
 Requires PUCO to submit a report of each annual retrospective management and
financial review to the President and Minority Leader of the Senate, the Speaker and
Minority Leader of the House, and the Authority.
 Requires the report submission to include a copy of the owner’s or operator’s certified
annual audit.
 Provides for the report to be made publicly available, provided it does not reveal any
confidential or proprietary information.
 Requires the Authority in consultation with PUCO to consider the findings in the report,
and permits the Authority to reduce or cease payments for nuclear resource credits if it
makes certain determinations relating to need, continued resource operation, resource
qualification, and reasonableness of credit funding.
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 If the Authority, based on the review, determines it necessary to make reductions,
requires PUCO to reduce the revenue requirement, reduce the credit price, reduce the
customer charge or charges, and adjust percentages for customer charge allocation.
 Requires that any revisions made by PUCO, as described above, be made through a
process that PUCO must determine is not for an increase in any rate, joint rate, toll,
classification, charge, or rental, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Ohio’s
Public Utility Law.
 Requires PUCO to instruct EDUs to suspend or cease billing and collection of customer
charges if payments for nuclear resource credits are suspended or ceased under the act.
 Exempts the review process from continuing law governing PUCO hearing procedure.
In-state renewable resources
 Permits an owner or operator of a qualifying renewable resource to apply, by
February 1, 2020, to the Authority to receive quarterly payments from the Renewable
Generation Fund for renewable energy credits earned by the resource.
 Defines “qualifying renewable resource” as in-state electric generating facility that:
 Uses or will use solar energy as its primary energy resource;
 Obtained a certificate for construction of a major utility facility from the Power
Siting Board prior to June 1, 2019; and
 Is interconnected with the transmission grid that is subject to the operational
control of PJM interconnection, L.L.C., or its successor.
 Requires the Authority to review and approve the application by March 31, 2020, if the
resource meets the act’s definition.
 Specifies that all financial and proprietary information, including trade secrets,
submitted to the Authority for application purposes is confidential and is not a public
record.
 Requires the owner or operator of the resource to report its electricity production not
later than seven days after the close of each quarter.
 Requires the reported production to be in accordance with data from the generation
attribute tracking system designated by the Authority.
 Requires the Authority to issue one renewable energy credit to the resource for each
megawatt hour reported and approved by the Authority.
 Sets the price of a renewable energy credit at $9 per megawatt hour.
 Beginning April 2021 and ending January 2028, requires the Authority every quarter,
and by the 21st of the month, to direct the State Treasurer to remit money from the
Renewable Generation Fund to pay for the credits earned by the resource during the
previous quarter.
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 If money in the Renewable Generation Fund is insufficient, requires the Authority to
both:
 Direct the State Treasurer, not later than 21 days after the close of the quarter in
which charges collected were insufficient, to prorate payments from the total
amount available in the fund based on the number of credits earned by a resource
during the quarter that ended 12 months prior to the last day of the previous
quarter; and
 Direct the State Treasurer, not later than 21 days after the close of a quarter in
which an owner or operator received prorated payments, to remit money from the
fund to pay the unpaid credits.
 Requires unpaid renewable energy credits to be paid before other remittances for
renewable energy credits are made from the Renewable Generation Fund.
Administrative provisions
 Permits the Authority to make use of PUCO staff and experts in the manner provided by
mutual arrangement between it and PUCO, and requires PUCO’s information, data, and
equipment to be placed at the Authority’s disposal.
 Provides that if any information, data, or equipment is not a public record because the
Authority or PUCO possesses it, the grant of authority to use PUCO staff and experts and
to access the information, data, and equipment cannot be construed to make it a public
record, notwithstanding anything to the contrary under the Revised Code.
 Requires the Authority to adopt rules, by January 1, 2020, for implementing the act’s
provisions regarding payments to nuclear and renewable resources.
Changes to renewable energy requirements
 Reduces the renewable energy benchmarks for EDUs and electric services companies
(ESCs) to 8.5% of electricity supply, with no solar portion, by the end of 2026, and
eliminates further requirements after that.
 Requires PUCO to reduce the number of kilowatt hours to comply with the renewable
energy requirements for all EDUs and ESCs in Ohio, by application of a formula that
reduces the compliance amount using the kilowatt hours produced by the qualifying
renewable resources receiving renewable energy credits.
 Reduces the baselines for purposes of the renewable energy requirements of EDUs and
ESCs to exclude the load and usage of mercantile customers that are self-assessing
purchasers of electricity (45 million kilowatt hours a year) to facilitate competitiveness
of those customers.
 Requires both of the following after the baseline has been reduced by excluding
mercantile customers that are self-assessing purchasers:
 Relieves EDUs and ESCs of the amount of compliance with the renewable energy
requirements that would be required but for the baseline reduction;
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 Exempts those mercantile customer self-assessing purchasers from any bypassable
charge imposed for compliance with the renewable energy requirements.
 Specifies that ongoing costs for certain renewable energy contracts, which may be
recovered under continuing law, may continue to be recovered regardless of the act’s
amendments to the renewable energy requirements.
 Beginning January 1, 2020, prohibits a qualifying renewable resource receiving
renewable energy credits under the act from being eligible to obtain a renewable
energy credit to meet the renewable energy requirements regarding any megawatt of
electricity for which the resource has been issued a renewable energy credit.
Changes to energy efficiency requirements
 Replaces the energy efficiency benchmarks for years 2021 through 2027 with the 17.5%
compliance process discussed below, and terminates energy efficiency/peak demand
reduction portfolio plans on December 31, 2020.
 Extends to December 31, 2020, the expiration date for all portfolio plans in effect on the
act’s effective date.
 If a portfolio plan is extended beyond its PUCO-approved term, requires the existing
plan’s budget to be increased to include an amount equal to the annual average of the
approved budget for all years of the portfolio plan in effect as of the act’s effective date.
 Maintains all other terms and conditions of a portfolio plan extended beyond its PUCO-
approved term unless changes are authorized by PUCO.
 Permits mercantile customers to opt out and later opt back into an EDU’s energy
efficiency/peak demand reduction portfolio plan.
 Requires PUCO to determine the cumulative energy savings collectively achieved by all
EDUs in Ohio since 2009, as of December 31, 2020, using both:
 Energy savings estimated by PUCO to be achieved as of December 31, 2020, and
banked under continuing law; and
 An energy savings baseline that is the average of total kilowatt hours sold by all
EDUs in Ohio in calendar years 2018 through 2020.
 Provides that energy efficiency compliance must be deemed achieved if the energy
savings collectively achieved is at least 17.5% of the energy savings baseline.
 If the energy savings collectively achieved is less than 17.5% of the baseline:
 Requires PUCO to determine how further implementation of energy efficiency
programs is to occur as reasonably necessary for a collective achievement of energy
savings of 17.5% of the energy savings baseline; and
 Provides that full compliance is to be deemed achieved as of a date certain
established by PUCO, notwithstanding any contrary provision of the energy savings
changes in the act.
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 Provides that once full compliance is deemed achieved, any cost recovery mechanisms
authorized by PUCO for compliance with e