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NEM: N.Y. Reset Order Arbitrary For Disparate Treatment of Muni Aggregation Customers, Seeks Rehearing

March 28, 2016

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Copyright 2010-16 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

The National Energy Marketers Association sought rehearing on the New York PSC's retail markets reset order, arguing, among other things, that the order was arbitrary for not subjecting service to mass market aggregation customers (both those in a pilot municipal aggregation and a long-running government-run opt-in program) to the same restrictions applied to non-aggregation customers

As more fully detailed by RetailEnergyX.com, the PSC's reset order excluded from its requirements the Sustainable Westchester municipal aggregation pilot and the government aggregation programs such as the opt-in Public Assistance Cooperative for Energy (PACE) program

"The Order also arbitrarily restricts ESCOs from offering any commodity-only service other than a guaranteed savings product but imposes no such restriction on entities serving Community Choice Aggregations or government aggregation programs," NEM noted

"The Commission attempts to rationalize this by characterizing these [aggregation] programs as more, 'closely aligned with industrial and large commercial customers,'" NEM noted

"Given all of the Commission’s consumer protection Orders and rules that clearly distinguish these types of consumers, this is not an apt comparison. In fact, there is and can be no justification for making this distinction as it effectively eliminates the availability of energy choice for some mass market consumers and not others, based solely on whether they live in an aggregation area or not," NEM said

NEM also sought rehearing on many of the same grounds on which it and other ESCO parties sought relief from a court regarding the order, including arguing that the order exceeded the PSC's authority and alleging that it did not comply with state notice requirements

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