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Regulator Considers Up To Multi-Million Dollar Fine Against Retail Supplier
The Connecticut PURA this morning considered fining South Jersey Energy Co. for operating as a supplier and serving customers with a lapsed license.
See prior story for background
Commissioners noted that SJE operated with a lapsed license for about 14 months, and that PURA may fine such a violation $10,000 per day.
That would equate to $4.2 million, but Commissioners further noted that serving each of 11 customers could constitute a separate violation, raising the total to about $46 million.
Noting this, PURA considered a "just and reasonable" proposed penalty of $30,000.
Based on discussions at this morning's PURA meeting, Matters understands that PURA voted to approve moving forward with the $30,000 penalty. As there was no draft order published online in advance of the meeting, Matters was unclear as to what was specifically before PURA for a vote this morning (whether the vote was on a re-opening, formally issuing a Notice of Violation, or adopting a draft or final order), and Matters does not wish to aver as to whether PURA's actions this morning constituted final agency action, but Commissioners voted to "approve" the docket and are at least in some fashion moving forward with the $30,000 fine as recommended by Staff
Yesterday, SJE had petitioned PURA to suspend any proceedings to levy a civil penalty on SJE until the underlying proceeding in the docket could be concluded, with SJE noting that it had requested a hearing
"The interrogatory responses and information to be presented by SJEC at the public hearing will provide important information concerning a number of factors relevant to any preliminary conclusions about the extent, if any, to which SJEC’s late license renewal violated Connecticut law or harmed customers. These topics include SJEC’s sales activities in Connecticut during the period in question, the company’s track record of regulatory compliance in Connecticut and other states, the nature of the company’s relationship with its customers, the nature of those customers and other similar matters. Further, SJEC respectfully requests the right to file a brief explaining how Connecticut law applies to an overdue retail supplier license renewal. Factually and legally, there are a host of differences between selling electricity without ever having obtained a license and an overdue license renewal filing," SJE had said.
"Until PURA considers the foregoing evidence and legal argument, the Authority does not have sufficient information to determine whether any civil penalty is appropriate or, if a civil penalty is appropriate, at what level. Simply put, commencing civil penalty proceedings under Section 16-41 of the General Statutes is both premature and unnecessary," SJE had said.
PURA did not explicitly discuss SJE's request during this morning's deliberation.
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May 20, 2014
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Copyright 2010-14 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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