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PSC Staff, Retail Suppliers, Public Advocate Reach Consensus on Retail Marketing Rule Changes, Save Two Issues

Brokers May Be Required To Provide Bond

Addresses Whether Affirmative Consent Needed for Renewals

Consensus Paves Way For Action on POR, Other Market Enhancements

October 26, 2016

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

PSC Staff and the Retail Energy Supply Association and Delaware Public Advocate have reached consensus on all but two items for retail electric marketing and licensing rule changes under Reg. Docket 49.

Notably, PSC Staff has, "has agreed to remove the requirement for affirmative consent of contract renewals."

The two issues on which consensus was not reached are the rescission period and the nature of customer inclusion on customer lists

Staff favors a rescission period of seven business days, RESA and DPA had reached agreement on a rescission period of three business days

Concerning customer lists, Staff supports Delmarva's position, "that participation in a customer list provided by the EDC to Suppliers should be an 'opt-in' program, if a customer chooses to "opt-out" of a customer list they should remain on the opt-out list for the duration of time they are a customer of the EDC."

A notable change in the Staff, RESA, and DPA consensus proposal (versus an earlier RESA-DPA consensus) concerns security required from suppliers and brokers.

The RESA-DPA consensus proposal has only permitted letters of credit for the purposes of meeting security requirements for licensure. The Staff-RESA-DPA consensus proposal changes the types of instruments permitted to be used to meet security requirements to include cash, cash equivalents, certificates of deposit, preferred stock proceeds, line of credit, loans, and other identifiable assets

In the Staff-RESA-DPA consensus proposal, Staff has agreed to eliminate parental guarantees from the types of security instruments allowed to satisfy the security requirements section of the rules.

Additionally, the Staff-RESA-DPA consensus proposal adds a provision to the proposed rules whereby brokers (who otherwise would not be subject to the security requirements) may be required to secure a bond, if the Commission determines on a case-by-case basis it is necessary for a broker to do so

Otherwise, the Staff-RESA-DPA consensus would generally adopt the earlier RESA-DPA consensus on substantive issues

Click here for details of the RESA-DPA consensus

Notably, among other things, the RESA-DPA consensus would require suppliers to make available to customers a mechanism under which customers could access their upcoming variable rate at least 12 days prior to close of the customer's billing period

Only in situations where a supplier proposes to renew a fixed price contract with a variable price contract, and the change to the variable price will be equal to or exceed 30 percent of the residential or small commercial customer’s fixed price, the electric supplier is required to provide written notice of the new variable price to the customer at least 12 days prior to the close of the customer’s billing period

The PSC is expected to vote on final adoption of Reg. Docket 49 rules at its meeting. Final adoption of the rules will pave the way for potential introduction of purchase of receivables and other retail market enhancements under Docket 15-1693, which have been deferred pending resolution of the retail market rule changes

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