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Retail Supplier to Pay $86,000 Under Settlement with PUC Staff to Resolve Alleged Slamming due to Incorrect File Transfer by Vendor
November 23, 2012
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Copyright 2010-
Under a settlement with the Pennsylvania PUC's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, Public Power, LLC would pay $64,450, plus customer refunds, to resolve allegations of slamming and all possible liability and claims related to an accidental transmission of an incorrect data file which led to erroneous, unauthorized requests for enrollment with Public Power for nearly 3,000 customers, of which 91% were rescinded prior to completion after the error was discovered.
Public Power will provide to each of the 263 customers which were physically switched to Public Power in error a refund for the electric generation portion of their bill for the period of time they were served by Public Power, not to exceed 60 days. These customer refunds total approximately $22,000.
According to the settlement filed with the PUC, on or about July 20, 2011, North American Power and Gas, LLC, an electric generation supplier (EGS) serving the PECO service territory, contacted PECO to request an investigation of a possible slamming incident involving Public Power.
According to the settlement, "Public Power voluntarily investigated the enrollments in question and found that its third-party marketing vendor, Energy Choice Partners ('ECP'), had uploaded a large number of customer accounts in the PECO service territory to the database of Public Power's Electronic Data Interchange ('EDI') vendor. Public Power contacted ECP regarding the issue and it was determined that ECP had mistakenly uploaded an incorrect file to Public Power's EDI database which was then transmitted to PECO on or about July 19, 2011. Public Power was advised by ECP that the incorrect file contained North American Power customers enrolled months earlier when ECP was engaged in similar marketing efforts for that EGS."
On July 22, 2011, at the request of Public Power, PECO began rescinding the erroneous customer enrollments to Public Power. Through PECO's "diligent efforts" to manually rescind the erroneous EGS enrollments, all but 263 of the 2,937 erroneous customer enrollments were successfully rescinded within the 10-day waiting period, and such customers were not switched to Public Power.
However, 263 customer accounts were physically switched to Public Power. Once PECO supplied Public Power with the list of the 263 accounts. "Public Power worked diligently with those customers to ensure that they were promptly returned to their selected EGS of choice," the settlement states.
The settlement notes that I&E Staff determined from its investigation that Public Power offered to reimburse PECO for the costs related to its rescission of the erroneous Public Power enrollments, but according to PECO it declined the offer, "in order to support the competitive process."
The settlement also notes that the electric generation rate paid to Public Power by the 263 customers whose accounts were switched for one billing cycle before being returned to their EGS of choice was lower than the rate they would have been charged by their EGS of choice.
"North American Power, the competitive EGS most impacted by ECP's data entry error which had initially contacted PECO, provided I&E with a letter in April 2012 commending the actions of Public Power in rectifying the mistake," the settlement states.
The settlement further notes that Public Power has taken corrective action and implemented revisions to its operating procedures which will act as safeguards against the transmission of erroneous or otherwise improper EGS enrollment data to the EDC. Among other safeguards, only when Public Power's customer database confirms that a valid TPV exists for a prospective customer, does the database now transmit that customer's enrollment information to Public Power's EDI vendor for transmittal to the EDC.
While noting several mitigating factors (the unintentional and inadvertent nature of the enrollments, the effective rescission of nearly all of the erroneous enrollments, the lack of financial harm, and Public Power's good faith efforts to comply with the Commission's regulations and cooperation), I&E Staff believes the resulting consequence of the action of Public Power or its agent, whether inadvertent or not, was of a "serious" nature, citing the PUC's prior statements that it maintains a "zero tolerance" standard regarding slamming, and therefore Staff said that the recommended civil settlement payment is appropriate.
The settlement remains subject to PUC approval
Docket: M-2012-2257858
Copyright 2010-
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