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Pennsylvania Orders Electric Switches to Occur Within 3 Business Days

April 4, 2014

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Copyright 2010-13 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

The Pennsylvania PUC has adopted a final rulemaking order to require that an electric distribution company execute a switch within 3 business days of the receipt by the EDC of the electronic enrollment transaction

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The PUC has eliminated the 10-day "waiting period" which had previously delayed the switching timeline.

To execute a switch within three business days, the EDC shall obtain a meter read to effectuate the switch of service within the time period provided for by the new rule, but in instances when the EDC does not have advanced or automated metering capability, the EDC shall obtain an actual meter read, use an estimated meter read, or use a customer-provided meter read. When an estimated meter read is used, the estimated meter read shall be updated when an actual meter read is obtained.

The new regulations require electric suppliers to notify the EDC of the customer's EGS selection at the end of the 3-business day rescission period under 52 Pa. Code § 54.5(D), or a future date specified by the customer. The selected EGS may notify the EDC by the end of the next business day following the customer contact upon customer consent.

"This will allow an EGS, if it prefers and with the consent of the customer, to send the customer's enrollment the day after the customer contact. If, however, the customer does not give consent, the EGS must wait until the end of the 3-day rescission period. This delay is at the choice of the customer," the PUC said.

"We will also include an exception for those instances when, again with the consent of the customer, the customer's enrollment is deliberately held until some future, distant date. This will accommodate those suppliers and customers who may want to enter into service at a future date, possibly to avoid early termination of a contract that would result in additional charges such as early termination fees," the PUC said.

The PUC will also now allow customers to return to default service by contacting the EDC, and not their current supplier

"When a customer contacts the default service provider to request a change from the current EGS to default service, the default service provider shall notify the customer that there may be a cancellation penalty to cancel service with the current EGS. Subsequent to this notice and upon express or written consent from the customer, the default service provider shall enroll the customer in default service," the PUC said.

"Express" consent, as provided to an EDC, was not defined in the new regulations; it may have a definition elsewhere in the code

EDCs and EGSs shall implement the revised regulations within six months of the date these revised regulations become effective

EDCs should seek recovery of reasonable costs in a future base-rate filing, which will receive the usual full scrutiny of review by the Commission and interested parties, the PUC said.

The final rules remain subject to approval from the Independent Regulatory Review Commission

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