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Utility To Cease Requiring Signed Consent To Move Customer To New Supplier From Assigning Supplier In Cases Of Merger, Assignment
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In a rate case at the Illinois Commerce Commission, North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas in Illinois have agreed to cease the current practice of requiring that a signed consent form from a customer be provided in order for a new retail supplier to serve a customer in cases where such service by the new supplier results from an assignment, acquisition, merger, or similar transaction
Currently, North Shore and Peoples require a signed consent form from each customer being assigned from
Rider FST or Rider SST in order for the customer to be moved from one supplier to another, even in cases of M&A. Only after the consent form is signed may the new supplier request that the customer be switched
to the new supplier
During the rate case, the Illinois Competitive Energy Association and the Retail Energy Supply Association proposed that North Shore and Peoples cease such practice, and instead verify that a binding agreement exists between the assignor
and assignee, such as through a purchase agreement or merger documentation
North Shore and Peoples agreed in testimony that, under the current practice of requiring signed consent for assignments, assignments of a greater
number of customers from one supplier to a new supplier create administrative and
operational challenges.
North Shore and Peoples agreed to change their practice, and said that, in the case of a merger, acquisition, or an otherwise "significant" assignment of Rider FST and
Rider SST customers from one supplier to another (with the LDCs stating that such would apply to assignments of more than 20 customers), the assigning/merging supplier and the assignee/acquiring supplier shall
provide the following materials to the utilities:
1. The document indicating the binding agreement between assignor and assignee
including merger documents, purchase agreements or other related documents that
validate the transfer.
2. A notice of assignment in a form similar to a pro forma developed by the LDC, which
shall have attached a list of the customers to be assigned.
The utilities' notice form for assignments to be submitted by suppliers will provide that, "This Assignment of Contract does not release Assignor with respect to any rights that Peoples Gas and/or
North Shore may have by reason of Assignor's past performance under the Contract(s)".
The utilities' assignment notice will also provide that, "if Assignor assigns fewer than all
of its accounts, the assigned accounts may first be placed on retail sales service under the companion classification,
given a new account number and given a new contract number before transportation service under the Contract(s)
resumes."
ICEA/RESA and Illinois Commerce Commission Staff support the utilities' proposed changes concerning the assignment of customers
During the rate case, ICEA/RESA also proposed allowing suppliers to reallocate volumes
between Rider FST and Rider SST pools at any time, even on critical or constraint
days. ICEA/RESA said that this proposal would not increase or
decrease the amount of gas delivered, and would be a simple reallocation to the
nominations on paper to align pools for accurate billing and to account for usage variability
or meters
North Shore and Peoples initially said in testimony that the proposed allocation
between a supplier's Rider FST and Rider SST pools on a critical day may expose sales
customers to greater costs. However, the utilities did not address their earlier opposition to this proposal in their post-hearing briefs or in a draft suggested order
As summarized in an ICC Staff brief, the utilities had initially alleged that the reason for this potential for higher costs to sales customers is that if
Peoples would have to pay for additional gas on critical days due to reallocations between
Riders FST and SST, Peoples would do so on the daily market at a cost as high as $129 per
dekatherm versus the usual cost of $4 per dekatherm
However, Staff noted that Peoples' current tariff provides that, "The supplier may not increase or
decrease the confirmed quantity of supplier-owned gas that it nominated for
delivery on the day prior to gas flow or change or reallocate among the
Receipt Points at which it is delivering gas," and this provision would not change under the ICEA/RESA re-allocation proposal
Staff stated, "The Companies also could not provide a list of each natural gas purchased in the
last year resulting from a reallocation and the price passed on to Sales customers from
each purchase; this is because no list existed."
ICEA/RESA also said that, "Reallocations between FST and SST pools during critical periods would not negatively impact the Companies’ [LDCs'] processes or IT infrastructure. They are already accepting reallocations between pools today, just not during critical day periods. Nothing in their infrastructure should change besides allowing the reallocation to occur."
North Shore and Peoples do continue to oppose another proposal from ICEA/RESA made in the rate case, in which ICEA/RESA propose that customers be allowed to directly transition from Riders FST [Full Standby Transportation Service] or SST [Subscription Storage Transportation Service] to Rider CFY [Choices for You] at any time of the year, and without defaulting to utility service, provided that the switch would only be effectuated after the 10-day rescission window under Rider CFY.
Currently, a customer moving from Rider FST or SST [large volume transportation] to Rider CFY [historically used for small volume transportation] must be served under default utility sales service for at least one billing month before the customer may begin service under Rider CFY. Additionally, under current practice, the utilities limit such customer movement to just once per year.
North Shore and Peoples said, "A customer switching multiple times a year between Rider SST and Rider FST to
Rider CFY effects the available bank for the Companies and will likely increase or
decrease the volumes of natural gas that the Companies are required to supply. In turn for
peak day planning, the Companies will likely be required to increase their purchase of
interstate pipeline services or purchase additional gas supplies that would be paid for by
sales customers."
North Shore and Peoples further said, "A Rider FST, SST, or CFY customer’s allowable bank is a backup storage
service provided by the Companies [LDCs] utilizing PGL-owned storage at Manlove
Field. Customers on Riders FST, SST, and CFY are allowed to inject (on
paper) into their allowable banks during all months of the year even though
the field cannot physically inject during winter months. If a customer on
Rider FST, SST, or CFY 'injects' gas into their allowable bank during winter
months to utilize at a later time, it reduces the seasonal volume available
to sales customers. To manage this, the Companies must either purchase
gas in the daily market early in the season to conserve storage volumes for
later, or purchase gas in the daily market later in the season if storage levels
are depleted."
However, ICC Staff, which supports the ICEA/RESA CFY proposal, said, "Storage inventory and allowable bank capacity are inherently different," with Staff further stating that the LDCs' cited concerns reflect an, "apples-to-oranges comparison".
Citing data, ICC Staff said that, "transportation customers as a group
behave the same way as the Companies when comparing capacity-to-capacity and
storage inventory-to-storage inventory. As such, the
Companies’ argument should be rejected as costs are not raised for sales customers."
Staff also said, in addressing the LDCs' arguments against the CFY proposal, "a
better solution is to leave Rider FST and SST customers on their end of the month billing
cycle and move directly to Rider CFY because the Companies would not have to change
the billing dates of any customer, which, in turn, is simpler for all parties".
Instead of the ICEA/RESA proposal, North Shore and Peoples recommended that the ICC allow for a once-a-year switch from Rider SST
or Rider FST to Rider CFY that shall only occur on May 1; or in the alternative, (2) permit the
LDCs to conduct a narrow study
to investigate the effects of the operational, administrative, and potential costs
to transportation and sales customers of allowing ICEA-RESA’s proposal, or
(3) open a broader docket to examine potential changes to the LDCs’ transportation
programs
"Limiting the switching to that date [May 1] allows the
Companies to acquire the necessary gas supply resources for its winter peak planning," the utilities said
North Shore and Peoples said, "It is unnecessary and would be unreasonable to adopt Staff’s and ICEA-RESA’s proposal
without, at the very least, (a) studying whether it would make the Companies’ winter planning
more difficult, thereby increasing costs for sales customers, and (b) ensuring that the proposal
does not entail subsidies from sales customers."
ICEA and RESA said that North Shore and Peoples did not provide any data to support their cost shifting claims. ICEA and RESA said, "The Companies’ claims, therefore, are speculative at best and should be rejected. The Commission should not delay commercial and industrial customers’ ability to switch riders at any time based solely on the Companies’ unsupported speculation that they need a study, which could have been conducted in this proceeding."
During the proceeding, ICEA and RESA also sought enhancements in utility communications to suppliers
Specifically, ICEA and RESA recommended that North Shore and Peoples should send email communication to suppliers
whenever North Shore and Peoples add or edit messages on the Pegasys website, the LDCs' Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB)
North Shore and Peoples accepted the ICEA and RESA EBB proposal in part, requiring that each supplier provide the LDCs with a single point of contact in the form of an
email address for such updates
The utilities also said, "Further, to align better with the practices of interstate pipelines connecting to
North Shore and Peoples Gas, changes to the EBB and related email notification would
occur 1 hour prior to any required operational changes. For declaration of critical days or other constraints, the Companies need to better match the timing notice requirements of
the surrounding interstate pipelines. By matching up the timing of notice requirements
related to critical days and constraints with the interstate pipelines, the Companies should
better be able to avoid pipeline penalties, limiting the risks of customer interruptions and
mitigate potential safety issues."
North Shore and Peoples' email and EBB proposal is acceptable to ICEA/RESA
Docket 26-0065, 26-0066
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Regulator's Staff Supports Requiring Other Changes At Utility Sought By Retail Suppliers
September 14, 2026
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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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