Energy Choice
                            

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Latest Draft Michigan Legislation Could Splinter Opposition To Choice Rollback By Catering to Current Choice Customers With Lure of Limited Expansion, Maintaining Current Queue

April 15, 2016

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

Speaking at the National Energy Marketers Association's 19th Annual National Restructuring Conference, John Quackenbush, whose term as Chair of Michigan PSC recently ended, told attendees that the latest legislative drafts being circulated addressing a rollback of choice could allow existing choice customers to expand their load under choice.

Currently, customers on choice service cannot expand their competitively served load, such as for an expanded facility, if the choice cap has been hit (which it has been at the two major EDCs service areas and some others), unless such customers took choice continuously since April 1, 2008

Quackenbush said that although he has not seen a draft reduced to writing, the ideas embedded in the latest draft being put forth by Senator Mike Nofs' office include a provision that a current choice customer could take choice for an expanded facility regardless of the cap.

Although not addressed by Quackenbush, such a provision could be designed to blunt opposition to the bill which would otherwise severely restrict choice (if not de jure, then by imposing new burdensome requirements on suppliers), by removing one of the constituencies opposed to any legislation rolling back choice even further, by granting them favored status related to choice service.

Additionally, Quackenbush said that under the latest drafts, the choice queue would likely stay. Earlier proposed legislation would have eliminated the queue

Other main tenets of the latest draft include some form of reflecting "cost of service" of choice customers, such as through a capacity charge, Quackenbush said

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