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New York Hopes to Incubate Online Marketplace/Platform for Retail Energy, Laments Lack of "Standard" Retail Contract

February 27, 2015

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Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

The New York PSC aims to incubate an online platform and exchange for retail energy that could instill confidence in commodity supply and distributed energy purchases, it directed in its Reforming the Energy Vision Order

"In almost every aspect of the retail economy, consumers have access to information that provide them the ability to easily locate products and services of interest and to compare and contrast providers. From airline tickets, to cars, to housing, clothing, restaurants, and potential spouses, the digital economy is resplendent with platforms that provide consumers with transparency and choice. Platforms and web-based markets provide customers and vendors ample opportunity to transact with confidence. These platforms also provide vendors with the ability to access consumers who have expressed an interest in their product and sufficient information to allow them to tailor their service offerings to meet those interests. In the energy industry, much of this competition for retail sales is still accomplished by door-to-door sales or marketing techniques that too frequently annoy rather than serve consumers. There are no specific standards for product definition, such as what constitutes a fixed versus variable or green product. As a result, and as the Commission has found, the mass market for value-added energy services in New York is far from developed or serviceable. Indeed, even if a customer is interested, the time that it requires to inform, contract and switch is far greater than should be needed," the PSC said.

"Building effective retail markets for DER will require a much smarter and technology enabled platform for mass market consumers to gain knowledge of the services available to them in the market. It is also essential, as Staff notes, to have a means to facilitate transactions and delivery of data necessary to secure a sale by a potential DER and commodity vendor to a customer. Such a platform can also serve as a vehicle to ensure product definition discipline that is essential for customers to be able to compare various service offerings as well as simplify and expedite the transaction between the customer and potential vendor. Finally, a single uniform platform for retail market access throughout New York can also serve as an important mechanism to create a statewide market for REV enabled products and services. The use of a single platform for data collection and dissemination is not inconsistent with vendors and utilities maintaining individual sales media that are linked to the uniform platform," the PSC said.

"We recognize that there are several services available to consumers to compare energy providers and potential services. However, to the extent that the actual transaction for these services remains encumbered by the challenges articulated above, their success may be limited. Accordingly, as part of the development of the retail commodity and DER market in New York, it will be valuable to have a uniform digital marketplace to facilitate market development. We are mindful of the fact that the design components and necessary requirements for this resource should be left to individuals experienced in developing these tools. Because we are convinced of the potential value of such a vehicle to the development of the market, we will require Staff to consult with the utilities, ESCOs, DER providers and experts in this field, to explore how such a platform could be designed, owned and operated to achieve the desired impact of instilling market confidence, facilitating transactions that help customers reduce their energy bills and lead to the further development of robust and market based DER deployments," the PSC said.

We specifically note that in describing the current challenges facing retail purchasers of competitive supply, the PSC lamented that, "unlike the wholesale portion of the service industry, customer contracts for energy are not necessarily uniform, which can complicate the transactions and undermine consumer confidence."

The PSC did not specifically propose a standard contract as part of the online platform examination, but it is something we think ESCOs be mindful of as the PSC moves forward.

See Related REV Stories Below:

N.Y. Directs Staff to Investigate, Report on Supplier Consolidated Billing

New York To Allow Utility Affiliates (And Utilities) To Own Distributed Resources Under REV Framework

No Surprise: Utility Picked As N.Y. Distributed System Platform Provider, PSC "Expects" Tariffs, Not Auctions, to Govern Initial Distributed Procurements

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