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Direct Energy Withdraws Petition To Restart Pennsylvania Retail Opt-In Programs

November 3, 2016

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

Direct Energy has filed to withdraw its petition before the Pennsylvania PUC in which Direct Energy had sought to restart the retail opt-in electricity referral/aggregation programs, which had been previously approved by the PUC, but which the PUC suspended prior to implementation.

As part of its investigation into the design of the retail electric market, the PUC had originally adopted at several EDCs retail opt-in programs under which 50% of mass market default service customers were to be mailed a letter from the EDC containing an offer from a pre-assigned retail supplier, offering the customer a 5% discount to the Price to Compare for an initial four months, with an EGS-determined fixed price (to be set in the future) for the following eight months. Customers selecting an EGS offer were to also be paid a $50 bonus payment.

Though terms varied by EDCs, the opt-in programs were notable in that customers would be mailed an offer from only a single supplier, with suppliers randomly assigned customers to which an opt-in offer would be provided.

The PUC then, in early 2013, elected to suspend the retail opt-in programs prior to implementation, citing potential confusion from offering the retail opt-in programs at the same time the EDCs were implementing the standard offer customer referral programs, which like the opt-in programs were also intended to enhance customer awareness of choice and make a customer's participation in choice easier (though the customer referral programs were targeted to a smaller audience through the EDC call centers rather than mailers, and featured a different product).

Click here for background on the PUC's order suspending the retail opt-in programs

In March, Direct Energy had proposed to implement a revised retail opt-in program at PPL and PECO to be offered in October 2016 (click here for story)

Direct Energy had proposed that the retail opt-in program would consist of a one-time mailing to non-shopping residential and small business (25 kW and below) customers with an opt-in offer of: 1) a 24 month electric generation supply contract at a price 5% below the Price to Compare at the time of the offer (with no cancellation or early termination charges for the commodity) and 2) a value-added, energy saving or energy management product or service at no additional charge.

Stakeholders filed answers to Direct Energy's petition, and parties had been engaged in settlement discussions since the filing.

"After due consideration of the parties' Answers filed in this proceeding and the positions presented during settlement negotiations, Direct Energy has decided to withdraw the Petition," Direct Energy said in its motion to withdraw

Ron Cerniglia, Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for Direct Energy, provided the following statement to EnergyChoiceMatters.com:

"We are committed to offering customers more choice, simplicity, and control when it comes to their energy use and we will continue to support the development of Pennsylvania’s competitive electricity market. A recent University of Pennsylvania study reported that Pennsylvania’s residential customers could save approximately $800 million per year. In addition, a cursory review of www.PAPowerSwitch.com shows that in one major utility territory there are 17 retail offerings priced below the utility’s PTC, which would result in a potential $75 million dollars of savings over three months left on the table by those one million customers remaining on default service. All parties should be supportive of helping educate customers about the benefits available to them in a competitive marketplace."

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