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N.Y. PSC Staffer Says They Feel "Confident" That Additional ESCO Products Will Be Allowed on Interim Basis Between Lift of Stay and PSC Decision on Additional Compliant Products

March 29, 2016

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

Note: The previous version of this story contained a statement from one of the stakeholders at the collaborative. EnergyChoiceMatters.com wishes to stress that such stakeholder did not approach EnergyChoiceMatters.com with this story. EnergyChoiceMatters.com independently heard the Staffer's comment during the collaborative, and immediately decided to write a story on the Staffer's statement given its importance. Given the gravity of the Staffer's statement, and to confirm that we heard the Staffer's statement accurately, we did reach out to the stakeholder to confirm what we ourselves heard. The stakeholder then also offered their reaction to the Staffer's statement, which we originally included in the story, but have now removed at the stakeholder's request as a courtesy

During a collaborative meeting yesterday, a New York PSC Staffer said that they feel "confident" that, when a stay of the PSC's February 23 retail market reset order is lifted, there will be a period within which ESCOs will be able to continue to offer products that are not the two compliant products identified in the February 23 order, until issues associated with potential other compliant products are worked through.

The statement came in a discussion concerning the particularly difficult position facing natural gas ESCOs, which under the February 23 order would only be able to offer a single product in the mass market -- a guaranteed savings product.

During the collaborative, an ESCO representative noted the inherent difficulty for ESCOs in offering guaranteed savings due to, among other reasons, the utility price not being known in advance. That leaves natural gas ESCOs in the position of not being able to market for over two months, from a potential lift of the court's stay on April 14 to the June/July timeframe when an order from the PSC on additional compliant products may be forthcoming.

In response to this comment, a PSC Staffer, who said that they were speaking way outside of their comfort zone given the legal nature of the issue and because the Staffer was not an attorney, nevertheless said that they feel "confident" that when the stay is lifted, there will be a period within which the ESCOs will be able to continue to offer products that are not the two identified products from the February 23 order until the Commission works through consideration of these issues

The Staffer stressed that while they are not the Commission, and that while the purpose of the collaborative was not to debate the February 23 order, they believe that there will be some kind of agreement, "... probably."

Staffers emphasized throughout the collaborative that they were not speaking for the Commission and were not speaking officially as representing a Staff position

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