Enforcement Staff Concerned Retail Suppliers "Appear" To Be Providing Incorrect Information To Brokers On Enrollment, Agent Rules

April 11, 2023

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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 issued a further notice to electric suppliers concerning a recent clarification on the entities permitted to enroll customers, as EOE alleged, "EOE has received several communications from entities describing themselves as 'brokers' and relaying what appears to be incorrect information received by suppliers."

Reiterating a recent motion ruling from PURA, as well as direction from EOE concerning such motion, EOE said, "To be clear, there are three entities that may enroll a customer with a supplier: the supplier, an aggregator, or an agent of either a supplier or an aggregator."

Such was made clear in EnergyChoiceMatters.com's coverage of the ruling and EOE notice: here and here

"If an entity is a supplier, then it may accept enrollments it obtains, enrollments obtained by its agents, and enrollments obtained by registered aggregators. If an entity is an aggregator, it may submit to a supplier enrollments it obtains or enrollments obtained by its agents," EOE said

"A supplier or an aggregator must be registered with the Authority (suppliers receive licenses and aggregators receive certificates). Agents do not register with the Authority, are the responsibility of either the supplier or the aggregator for whom they work, and are subject to the requirements of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-245o and the Marketing Standards," EOE said

"EOE is concerned that some entities who have been functioning as supplier’s agents are being misinformed that they need to obtain an aggregator certificate because 'suppliers may accept enrollments only from registered aggregators.' Such a statement is incorrect and not what the Motion ruling or EOE’s correspondence stated. Suppliers and aggregators still may accept enrollments from their agents. The Motion ruling simply clarified that suppliers may not accept enrollments from an entity that is not their agent or is not an aggregator," EOE said

"For example, if a supplier accepted enrollments through a website that was not its agent or not a registered aggregator, that practice may not continue," EOE said

"As the Motion ruling clarified, any entity that accepts compensation from a supplier is the agent of a supplier and may not also function as an aggregator and/or hold an aggregator’s certificate. This was not a change in law, but simply a restatement of existing law. Therefore, EOE discourages suppliers from providing incorrect information to agents and telling them to register as an aggregator," EOE said

"Agents may remain agents and must be included on the supplier’s Form 6," EOE said

"If the entity accepts compensation from a supplier and/or is not compensated by the customer, EOE will not recommend that the entity receive an aggregator certificate, and the application process will have wasted the applicant’s time and resources," EOE said

"EOE encourages all suppliers to understand the Motion ruling and guide the entities with which it works correctly. If suppliers or aggregators have questions, they are welcome to direct them to EOE," EOE said

EOE further stated, "As the Motion ruling clarified, there is no legal entity known as a broker in Connecticut. The use of such a term is unhelpful and confusing."

Docket No. 14-07-20RE01

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