Oklahoma Commission Approves 2021 Winter Storm Cost Recovery Orders

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted to approve two orders for state utilities to recover natural gas costs incurred during the February 2021 winter storm.

The commission approved separate orders for CenterPoint Energy and Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Commission Chair Dana Murphy says the PSO decision uses the state’s securitization law to spread the cost over 20 years, while the CenterPoint order spreads the cost over 15 years.

“This means that the monthly impact to ratepayers will be far less than it otherwise would have been,” Murphy said in a statement. “It’s estimated that the natural gas costs owed would have cost an average residential CenterPoint customer $538.07 if billed all at once and $44.61 if billed over 12 months. Securitization allows the cost to be spread out up to 15 years, dropping the monthly payment to an estimated $4.36 for the average residential customer.”

Commissioner Bob Anthony voted against the PSO order, writing in a dissenting opinion that the order imposes “onerous, overpriced, nonconsensual debt on Oklahoma’s residential ratepayers.”