Update: The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) and the Ohio Energy Group (OEG) filed testimony in opposition to a pair of stipulations signed by AEP and Staff involving AEP’s significantly excessive earnings test (SEET) cases for 2014 and 2015. OCC argued that the stipulations fail the PUCO’s test for evaluating the reasonableness of a stipulation because they are the product of secret negotiations, do not reflect a compromise among parties because they merely rehash AEP’s litigation position, deny customers the benefit of a $20 million refund, and prejudge the outcome of AEP’s 2016 SEET case. OEG argued that the stipulations are unreasonable because they are the products of an exclusionary process insofar as OCC, OEG, and OMAEG were not solicited to provide substantive feedback during settlement, do not embody a compromise of competing interests because the Staff is aligned with AEP in every material respect, and allow AEP to retain as much as $120 million in excess earnings for 2014 and 2015.  OMAEG intends to actively oppose the stipulations at the hearing scheduled for October 7, 2016.