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RESA Seeks Review, Enhancements for Long Island Power Authority Choice Program
March 9, 2012
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Copyright 2010-
An audit of the Long Island Power Authority's management and operations should include an investigation of the operational steps and constructive policy actions LIPA should implement to restructure and reinvigorate its moribund "LI Choice" Program, the Retail Energy Supply Association said in comments to the New York PSC.
Under the recently signed Long Island Power Authority Oversight and Accountability Act, the PSC now has the ability to review and evaluate LIPA's overall operations and management practices, and the PSC has started an audit process.
The current LIPA choice program, "offers little in the way of choices for Long Island consumers and lags far behind the successes that have been achieved in the rest of the State resulting from Commission policies," RESA said.
RESA said that in connection with LIPA's electric commodity cost pricing mechanism, the following enhancements should be evaluated for integration into the LI Choice program:
• Full inclusion of all cost components of commodity supply;
• Cost allocation;
• Unbundling; and
• Capacity access (for transmission-constrained areas)
RESA further said that with respect the LIPA's retail access infrastructure, the following market enabling measures should be evaluated for integration into the LI Choice program:
• Consumer Outreach & Education;
• Retail Billing Options;
• Purchase of Receivables Billing Option,
• Timely Access to Customer Usage Information, and
• Electronic Data Interchange.
"[T]he paucity of progress in this market [LIPA] is not in any way associated with the lack of ability or desire by ESCOs to actively compete in this market," RESA said. "To the contrary, the more than 1.1 million customers located in the LIPA service territory represent a tremendous market opportunity for the ESCO community. Therefore, ESCOs are extremely desirous of and interested in bringing this market to fruition just as they have done throughout the balance of New York State. Nonetheless, they have been stymied by a combination of systemic structural deficiencies in the Program which have, in our view, created an impenetrable barrier to effective competition. It is now time for LIPA, following the precedent of the Commission policies that have led to vibrant retail markets throughout the State, to identify and implement policies and practices that will improve the elements of the Program and create a vibrant competitive retail market."
RESA noted that LIPA's supply rate is not market-based, and that its distribution rates, among other things, include LIPA's cost of uncollectibles for commodity supply.
Email This StoryCopyright 2010-
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