Energy Choice
                            

Matters

N.Y. PSC Staff Intends To Make Historic ESCO Pricing Information Public; Follow Directive To Publish Comparative List of ESCO Average Prices

December 10, 2015

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

New York PSC Staff have informed ESCOs that Staff intends to make certain ESCO historic pricing information public.

"It is staff’s intention to make the historic pricing information for 2014 and 2015 public," pursuant to the PSC's February 2014 retail markets order

Specifically, in the February 2014 order, ESCOs were directed to file with the PSC certain historic pricing information for dissemination to the public consisting of quarterly reports including a separate average unit price for products with no energy-related value-added services for each of four groups of customers and by geographic area. A subsequent order stayed this requirement for non-residential service, so ESCOs have only been required to report the historic prices for residential service.

More specifically, the February 2014 order (as amended by the stay) provided that ESCOs file separate average unit price for products with no energy-related value-added services for a: i) residential price fixed for a minimum 12 month period; and ii) residential variable price. The PSC had said that the averages should be weighted by the amount of commodity sold at each price within each category. ESCOs were also directed to file the number of customers purchasing products in those categories.

In the February 2014 order, the PSC explained how it would public post the ESCO pricing information as follows:

"We now confirm our intention ... to publish comparative pricing information for the categories identified above. We anticipate development of a list of the average price billed for each ESCO, separately for consumers in specific geographic areas of a utility service territory. We expect to sort the list based on average price, and organize ESCOs into quartiles, based on the average price charged to customers in the historical period. For the category of variable priced products with no energy-related value-added attributes, we anticipate that comparable information regarding utility charges will also be presented. The utility information will be adjusted to account for differences between how ESCOs and utilities charge for bill processing and other charges in order charges in order facilitate a direct comparison."

Note that certain ESCO pricing history for individual products is already publicly available for those ESCO plans listed on NY Power to Choose. However, the average ESCO historic pricing, presented in comparative format, has not previously been publicly available.

While ESCOs have sought confidential protection for their historic pricing filings, Staff noted the February 2014 Retail Markets Order was cited in a subsequent Determination of the Records Access Officer and upheld on Appeal by the Secretary to the PSC in which both findings denied confidential treatment to historic pricing information.

ESCOs were granted another opportunity to justify confidential treatment of the pricing information, however, and were given an extension until January 4, 2016 to make their cases.

The Records Access Officer also clarified that, "although Staff is seeking that the information released will tie each ESCOs to its specific customer data, Staff is not seeking to release customer counts."

Cases 12-M-0476, 14-02555, and 14-02554

ADVERTISEMENT
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
• NEW! -- Director of Commercial Structuring -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- Customer Account Manager -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Vice President and Regional General Manager -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Program Director - $225K/yr -- Texas
• NEW! -- Staff Accountant, Commissions Analysis -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- Direct Business Development Manager -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Compliance Manager -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Supplier Services Manager
• NEW! -- Operations Analyst -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- ERCOT Business Development Manager -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
• NEW! -- Channel Manager -- Retail Supplier
• NEW! -- Marketing/Channel Manager -- Retail Supplier -- Houston