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NEM: Proposed New York UBP Changes (TPV-ing All Sales, Etc.) Would Predetermine Outcome Of Evidentiary Retail Market Review

NEM Says UBP Changes Appear To Be "End-Run" Around Evidentiary Proceeding

May 16, 2017

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Copyright 2010-17 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

Adopting significant changes to the New York Business Practices, including a requirement for independent third party verification of all mass market sales, that have been proposed in a rulemaking proceeding, which is separate from the evidentiary proceeding reviewing the retail mass market, would prejudge the outcome of such evidentiary proceeding, the National Energy Marketers Association said in comments to the PSC, as NEM asked that the proposed UBP changes be withdrawn, apart from limited discrete changes, such as one prompted as a result of a change in law

See background on the proposed UBP changes here. Among other things, the proposed UBP changes include:

• Requiring All ESCO Mass Market Sales Be Subject To Independent TPV (Internet, Mailer, Etc.)

• Requiring ESCOs To Direct Customers To Compare Rate To Utility's Rate On Bill

As previously reported, the PSC's retail mass market review includes an evidentiary proceeding (Track 1). NEM noted that parties in the Track 1 proceeding were requested to address a list of twenty issues, including potential modifications to the UBPs, as well as the, "the ability of mass-market customers to obtain information about relative prices and offerings of ESCOs and regulated utilities and to understand such information."

Many of the proposed UBP changes that have been made in the separate UBP proceeding, "are inextricably related to the Commission’s on-going Track 1 proceeding, such that the resolution of those issues in the instant case would effectively predetermine the outcome of issues in the Track I proceeding without a supporting record," NEM said in comments to the PSC.

"The proposed UBP changes in the instant case appear to predetermine the outcome of Track 1 proceeding. The impropriety of requiring ESCOs to advise customers to compare the inapposite bundled utility rate on the utility bill with ESCO rates – one of the changes proposed in the instant case – is an issue that turns on key issues being considered and analyzed in the Track I proceeding. Likewise, proposals to increase third party verification requirements, enrollment requirements and record retention requirements, and to require ESCOs to offer residential customers budget billing or levelized payment plans, fall squarely within the type of UBP changes that could foreseeably turn on the results of the Track I proceeding," NEM said in comments to the PSC.

"Numerous stakeholders are involved in the Track 1 proceeding and are expending significant time and resources to develop a thorough record in that case. The proposed UBP changes here appear to be an end-run around the evidentiary proceeding in the Track 1 proceeding, to the detriment of all of the parties involved in that case. That perception is amplified by the Commission’s failure to provide any record, data, analysis, or rationale for making the proposed UBP changes here (other than the change precipitated by the new General Business Law provision and the petition to change the ESCO representative identification requirements). For that reason, the proposed UBP changes, aside from the changes prompted by the new General Business Law provision on early termination fees and the petition to change the ESCO representative identification requirements, should be stayed or withdrawn pending the resolution of Track 1," NEM said in comments to the PSC.

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