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Revised Draft Would Allow Suppliers To Continue To Serve Incidental Residential Accounts With Complex Products

May 29, 2015

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

A revised draft Connecticut PURA decision would find that "incidental" residential accounts -- those meters associated with non-residential customers but assigned a residential rate class -- are not subject to new statutory billing information requirements, removing the concern that such incidental accounts would be prohibited from taking complex rate products.

As previously reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, an earlier draft order would have provided that utilities shall provide new summary information previously required for residential bills (rate, rate expiration date, rate change notice, etc.) for incidental residential accounts receiving a utility consolidated bill. As a result, this earlier draft would have required retail suppliers to provide EDCs with the information necessary to include this summary information with incidental residential account consolidated bills.

Suppliers had raised concern that if these incidental residential accounts are classified as residential for purposes of including summary information on bills, a prior PURA decision prohibiting the offering of certain variable rates (specifically, anything but a variable-monthly rate which is a single rate each month, set in advance of the billing period) to residential customers would prohibit the offering of complex rates (block and index pricing, portfolio managed pricing, etc.) to business customers who happen to have incidental residential accounts.

The revised draft addresses this concern, and states that the Authority will exempt the billing statement associated with an incidental residential account from the Summary Information under Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245d(a)(2). The draft states that this conclusion is consistent with PURA's prior finding in Docket No. 13-07-18, which had provided that the definition of residential customer, for purposes of whether suppliers are prohibited from providing certain products to the customer, occurs at the customer level (meaning the contractual counter-party), not the meter type/rate class level.

In other words, the revised draft is said to be consistent with PURA's prior finding that the prohibition on serving residential customers with any product but a fixed or variable-monthly rate does not apply to incidental residential accounts, which may continue to be served with complex products.

The draft directs suppliers and the EDCs to collaborate and plan to identify incidental residential accounts and work through the EBT Working Group process to implement the standards necessary to implement the exemption described above with an eye toward minimizing additional administrative burdens on the EDCs.

The revised draft also addresses suppliers' obligation to include on their bill the summary rate information for residential customers receiving a dual bill. The draft notes that the summary rate information is similar to the information already required to be included in quarterly rate notices, and would provide that suppliers can fulfill bill information the requirements of Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245d(a)(2) by providing the summary information as a separate first page with the bills for residential customers receiving direct (dual) bills.

Docket 14-07-19RE01

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