PUCO approves the results from Dominion East Ohio’s natural gas supply auctions

COLUMBUS, OHIO (Feb. 11, 2009) – The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) today approved the results of Dominion East Ohio’s auctions for its standard service offer (SSO) and standard choice offer (SCO). The auctions secured natural gas supplies for Dominion’s customers for the period April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010 and established a retail price adjustment of $1.40 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for both SSO and SCO customers.

“Yesterday’s auctions provided great results for Dominion’s customers,” PUCO Chairman Alan R. Schriber stated. “Customers participating in either the SSO or SCO will experience benefits from this new retail price adjustment as the wholesale natural gas market continues to provide a better commodity price for Dominion’s customers than the gas cost recovery mechanism did in the past.”

The SSO will apply to Dominion’s customers that are currently enrolled in the Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) or that are ineligible for the choice program. The SCO will allow choice-eligible customers to enroll with an energy choice supplier of their choosing, join a government aggregation buying group or be assigned to a supplier at the SCO rate.

Each SCO customer’s bill will indicate the certified retail natural gas supplier that is responsible for providing the customer’s natural gas. Dominion will continue to deliver natural gas to all customers, offer payment plans, and handle all emergency and customer service calls. Government aggregation group customers and those already enrolled with an energy choice supplier are not affected; their contracts remain the same.

World Energy Solutions, the auction manager retained by Dominion, conducted a descending clock auction for the SSO on Feb. 10, 2009. The SCO auction began as a descending clock auction until the SCO price descended to the level of the winning SSO price, at which point the auction format changed to an ascending auction. Bids were entertained from suppliers based on fixed adjustments to the NYMEX settlement price. Dominion, PUCO Staff, and the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, jointly monitored the auction.

The Commission agreed with PUCO Staff’s post-auction conclusions that the auction results were reasonable. The Commission order provides that the names of the winning auction bidders will not be provided for a period of 60 days from today. This period of confidentially protects the bidders’ positions in negotiations with pipeline companies for the incremental capacity necessary to meet their obligations as standard service offer suppliers.

Dominion will conduct another round of auctions for the period April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011 in February 2010. A copy of today’s Commission opinion and order is available at www.PUCO.ohio.gov. Click on the link to the Docketing Information System and enter the case number 07-1224-GA-EXM.

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07-1224-GA-EXM