NEP Energy Services announced on January 4 that it intends to act as a retail energy supplier in Ohio and other states, according to a report in the Cleveland Star.
The company is owned by Nationwide Energy Partners, which resells electricity to apartment- and condo-dwellers – a practice called submetering.
Customers have complained submetering leads to inflated energy bills – a claim the Columbus-based company has denied, according to the local news outlet.
Nationwide Energy Partners CEO Gary Morsches has said the costs are fair. “You’re being charged for the amount of power that you use,” he told the local news outlet last year. “That awareness is what drives the actions of conservation and things like that.”
Submetering companies, which currently are not regulated, soon could be under the watch of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (Docket No . 15-0697-EL-CSS).
The agency last month said it will seek regulatory authority over companies if they “charge unreasonably high rates for the resale and redistribution of utility service.”
NEP Energy was formed in 2003 but the subsidiary “has never conducted business,” the company said in a new filing (Docket No. ER17-735-000) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
NEP Energy is in the process of applying to PUCO for a supplier’s license to sell in Ohio. PUCO records show the company registered as a supplier from 2012 until March 2016 but did not sell power or conduct any business.
The company is among several of note seeking the ability to sell power or natural gas in the state. Subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell and Rice Energy are among those seeking entry into Ohio’s energy retail marketplace, according to a report posted last October 7 by Columbus Business First.