Virginia Committee Advances Bill That Would Allow All Customers To Purchase 100% Renewable Supply From Competitive Retail Suppliers, Regardless Of Utility Offering

February 10, 2020

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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A Virginia House of Delegates committee has reported favorably and advanced to a first reading in the House HB 889, which would, among other things, allow all customers of the investor-owned utilities to purchase 100% renewable electricity from a competitive retail supplier regardless of any utility green offering

The bill would strike from the current statute the prohibition that limits such ability for customers to purchase 100% renewable supply to instances in which the utility does not offer a 100% renewable tariff

The bill would also provide that, at the IOUs, a customer who purchases electricity that is composed of a percentage of renewable energy equal to or greater than the percentage of renewable energy that the licensed supplier is required to provide pursuant to any renewable energy portfolio standard will be considered a single customer even for any noncontiguous sites under such service. That treatment would allow customers to avail themselves of the current 5 MW aggregation carve-out for retail electric choice, which is currently limited to contiguous sites

The bill would also shorten from five years to three years the period that a customer who switches from an investor-owned electric utility to a licensed retail supplier is barred from returning as a customer of the utility.

The bill also provides that the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) shall update its consumer protection regulations relating to the availability of service through licensed suppliers pursuant to § 56-577 of the Code of Virginia by implementing one or more of the following:

(i) developing a consumer education website funded through an assessment on licensed suppliers and through the use of Commission's regulatory tax revenues,

(ii) issuing a quarterly report in the form of a customer satisfaction scorecard based on the number of complaints received regarding competitive service providers per 1,000 customers, and

(iii) supplementing existing rules with an additional enforcement mechanism to enable the Commission to take timely action in the event that a licensed supplier engages in unscrupulous activity in making sales to retail customers.

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