New York ESCO Asks PSC To Include Utility Price To Compare On ESCO Customer Utility Consolidated Bills

April 26, 2023

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

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Electree LLC, a start-up ESCO (see background here), has asked the New York PSC to include the utility's price to compare on the bills of ESCO customers billed under utility consolidated billing at ConEd.

In seeking its ESCO eligibility, Electree initially sought authorization to offer a Guaranteed Savings Product to residential customers.

However, Electree withdrew this proposed product, stating, "This is due to several issues that must be addressed before it can become a viable product in the Con Edison utility territory."

Electree further said, "One of the main issues consumers face when trying to compare Con Edisons [sic] prices to other competitive suppliers is the lack of transparency in Con Edison's residential electricity supply cost. While customers can easily see the Con Edison supply cost per kWh at the bottom of the supply section of their bill when purchasing electricity supply from Con Edison, the same cannot be said when working with another competitive electricity supplier."

"Customers must navigate through a complicated process that involves addition, multiplication, division, and knowledge of rules that are not posted anywhere on Con Edison's website. This makes it incredibly difficult for the average customer to calculate what their cost would have been, which, in turn, inhibits competition," Electree said

Electree said as follows (the entire following blockquote section directly quotes Electree's statements in its filing):

"

For example, to calculate the Con Edison electricity residential EL1 price to compare for 800 kWh, bill period 12/9/2022 to 1/9/2023, the customer must do the following analysis which is unacceptable:

This is the link where Con Edison posts their electricity supply charges

https://lite.coned.com/_external/cerates/supply_charges.asp

The customer must calculate the sum of these separately posted components

1. Calculate the market supply charge from the market supply charge calculator for the selected dates (the misleading name of this component should not be confused with the Total Supply Charge)

2. Determine the MSC adjustments, Merchant Function Charge, Clean Energy Standard Supply Charge, and Gross Receipts Taxes and other surcharges

3. Follow rules that are not posted anywhere on Con Edison's website, such as determining which components should be prorated, how many decimal places to use, and deciding if the "from" or "to" date should be excluded from the calculation since bill period dates overlap by one day.

"

Electree said, "At Electree LLC, we understand these challenges all too well, and believe consumers must be provided with transparency without having to engage in complicated math problems and search for information that is not readily available. Therefore, we urge the NYPSC to mandate the printing of the Con Edison supply price to compare on all Con Edison invoices, not just when the customer receives supply from Con Edison."

Electree said, "The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities requires this of utilities in New Jersey."

"Additionally, Con Edison should be required to post a residential supply charge calculator where customers can enter the bill period and see the total rate per kWh, including all supply components," Electree said

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