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Connecticut Issues Decision On Interim Changes To Supplier Next Rate Info Listed On Bills While Permanent Solution Reviewed

March 29, 2018

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

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The Connecticut PURA has issued a decision changing, on an interim basis, how electric distribution companies are to handle situations in which a retail supplier fails to provide information to populate the Next Rate information listed on a customer's bill, to be in place while PURA more thoroughly evaluates the issue to develop a permanent solution.

PURA in its order states, "Pursuant to this Decision, when the supplier does not provide the EDC with the appropriate Next Rate in a timely manner for the next customer bill, the EDCs shall display 'Not Provided' for the Next Rate on a customer’s bill if the EDC currently has the technological capacity to do so without incurring additional costs. If the EDC currently does not have the capacity to insert 'Not Provided' into the Next Rate field without incurring additional costs, the EDC may leave the Next Rate field blank until a final solution is determined as part of Docket No. 14-07-19RE05."

"Based on the Authority’s review of Senator Suzio’s complaint, the EDCs’ responses to Interrogatories SEU 6 through 8 submitted in Docket No. 14-07-19RE01, and the arguments and analysis contained in the OCC’s Motion No. 7, the PURA concludes that until a more permanent solution can be reached, it is in the best interest of ratepayers to display no information or 'Not Provided' for the Next Rate when an electric supplier fails to timely provide an updated Next Rate rather than displaying an incorrect rate. In support of this conclusion, the Authority finds, as illustrated by the facts set forth in Senator Suzio’s complaint and corroborated by the EDCs’ interrogatory responses to SEU 6 through 8, that the practice of displaying the last Next Rate provided by suppliers whether or not it was current resulted in customers sometimes receiving inaccurate and potentially misleading information about their Next Rate, as customers expected the Next Rate displayed on their bills to be the rate they were to be charged during the next billing cycle. Therefore, the Authority directs the EDCs to discontinue the practice of displaying the last Next Rate data provided by an electric supplier when the supplier does not timely provide the rate for the next customer bill," PURA ordered

"No later than July 1, 2018, when an electric supplier fails to timely provide an updated Next Rate, the EDCs shall display 'Not Provided' for the Next Rate if the EDC currently has the capacity to display 'Not Provided' without incurring additional costs; otherwise, when an electric supplier fails to timely provide an updated Next Rate, the EDC shall display no information for the Next Rate. Compliance with the this order shall commence and continue as indicated or until the EDCs submit a motion request and the Authority issues a letter order approving that compliance is no longer required after a certain date," PURA ordered

In re-opening the case reviewing supplier and EDC obligations regarding the provision of Next Rate information, PURA stated its review will include, among other things, an examination of whether an EDC has the capability to, and should ensure that, the customer’s billed rate is lower than the prior next cycle rate provided by the supplier, as discussed in comments received from Senator Suzio

Suzio has written to PURA that, "The solution should be to mandate that under no circumstances should the actual rate charged in the next monthly bill ever exceed the stated rate in the Next Rate field in the prior monthly bill (two months earlier)."

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