Dive Brief:
- Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) has told Ohio state regulators it would not meet the deadline set for transferring about 3,400 MW of coal-fired generation to an affiliate.
- Without financial help to cover the costs of the transfer or a sale to a third party, divestiture would not be completed until May 2017 at the earliest. The state deadline is end of 2014.
- The new deadline put the utility’s “financial integrity” at risk and calls on the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to restore original deadlines.
Dive Insight:
If the assets are sold to a third party, they could be transferred within the timeline set by regulators. While a spokesperson for DP&L said that the company was in talks regarding a sale, there was no guarantee any transaction would meet the company’s needs. The utility didn’t specify in the filing how much it would need to sell the assets for to cover costs incurred by redeeming pollution control bonds and mortgage bonds on its assets earlier than originally scheduled.
If the Ohio PUC decides to rehear DP&L’s case, a final decision on whether or not to extend the deadline may not be made until much later this year, which could stall any deal DP&L might make to transfer the assets to a suitable third party.