IEU-Ohio is an organization of large Ohio energy consumers that spend collectively over $3 billion per year on electricity and natural gas for their plants and facilities. IEU-Ohio's members employ over 250,000 people in Ohio.

IEU-Ohio's members work together to address matters that affect the availability of and price of utility services. IEU-Ohio seeks to promote customer-driven policies that will assure an adequate, reliable and efficient supply of energy for all consumers at competitive prices.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

• Adequate, reliable and competitively priced utility services are important factors for economic viability, development and growth.
• Efficient markets should be enabled and relied upon for price and service quality regulation for those services and functions where such markets can better serve the public interest.
• Utility rates for each regulated service offering should be based upon the costs incurred to provide the service and the same costs used to measure the utility's revenue requirement.
• Fixed costs should be allocated to all customer classes on the basis of an appropriate customer or demand allocator and not allocated or recovered on a commodity or energy basis.
• The prudence of a utility's decision should be evaluated based on a "least cost" strategy and the extent to which cost beneficial supply and demand side resources have been fully integrated to provide adequate and reliable service.
• Utility rates should not be used to transfer economic resources from one sector to another, to fund programs created to address a perceived societal goal or to distribute costs and benefits disproportionately.
• Utility services should be unbundled and subject to comparability and non-discrimination requirements to meet the needs of all consumers and market participants and promote efficient markets.
• A utility's purchase price for goods or services obtained from an affiliated firm should be competitive with the market price for such goods or services.
• The regulatory process should be responsible and timely for all parties.

ACTIVITIES

• Proactively advance the interests of large energy consumers in constructive dialogues among Ohio energy users, suppliers, regulators, legislators, utilities and governmental bodies in a factual, objective manner.
• Promote awareness of the effect of energy costs and government action upon large energy users and the world market in which they must compete.
• Build an objective data base which helps to identify current and anticipated problems related to the supply and cost of utility services and suggest practical solutions to problems.
• Within the framework of fundamental principles, encourage optimal use of Ohio's energy resources.