Regulator's Staff Revises Recommendation, Now Says License Should Be Granted To Retail Supplier, Citing New Commitments -- EnergyChoiceMatters.com

Regulator's Staff Revises Recommendation, Now Says License Should Be Granted To Retail Supplier, Citing New Commitments

April 29, 2021

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Copyright 2010-21 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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The Office of Education, Outreach and Enforcement (EOE) of the Connecticut PURA has filed a revised recommendation concerning the electric supplier application of SmartestEnergy U.S. LLC (SEUS) and now proposes that PURA grant an electric supplier license to SmartestEnergy

As previously reported (details here), EOE had raised concerns that several of SEUS's management personnel previously held positions at BlueRock Energy, which EOE alleged had exited the Connecticut retail market with unpaid RPS compliance obligations. EOE alleged that such SEUS personnel were aware of BlueRock's compliance deficiency, and alleged that, as a result, "SEUS' management team’s demonstrated lack of managerial capability."

In its revised recommendation, EOE said, "After discussion between EOE and SEUS, and responses to interrogatories submitted by SEUS, SEUS has demonstrated that it has safeguards in place to prevent the members of management with whom EOE was concerned from failing to meet RPS obligations and that SEUS’ group of companies, including its parent company, Marubeni Corp., assure that SEUS will meet all of its regulatory obligations."

SmartestEnergy provided the following statement concerning the matter:

"We are pleased that we were able to work with the Office of Education, Outreach and Enforcement (EOE) Staff to resolve all concerns and are grateful for EOE’s motion supporting approval of our license."
--- Statement from SmartestEnergy

More specifically, EOE said that in response to interrogatories, "the Smartest Energy Group agreed to ensure that SEUS will meet any and all of its regulatory obligations, including fines or fees. Response to EOE-3. SEUS further explained that the Marubeni Corp. and Smartest Energy UK are ultimately responsible for SEUS’ regulatory compliance and agreed to safeguards to ensure SEUS would not default on its regulatory obligations, including allowing the Authority to monitor SEUS’ 'net position for each REC product in real time' and agreeing not to oppose the Authority’s pending regulations to require an RPS security. Response to EOE-1. More importantly, SEUS agreed to, 'On a monthly basis ... accrue for each mandatory REC product, including Connecticut RECs, based on its actual sales volume, the obligation percentage of each REC product and the then current market price of each REC product. Such accrual will be consistent with generally accepted accounting practices. These accruals will be audited by SEUS’ auditor annually beginning with SEUS’ fiscal year ended March 2022.'"

EOE's proposed decision recommends that the Authority conclude that SmartestEnergy U.S. LLC possesses the financial, technical, and managerial capabilities, as required under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-245, to supply electric generation services to commercial and industrial customers in Connecticut, and that a license be granted to the company

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