ResCom Error Results in 870 Erroneous Customer Switches Which Cannot be Stopped

ResCom Energy, LLC is taking corrective measures to address what it termed the accidental re-enrollment of 870 former customers, and to hold customers harmless for the error.

The 870 affected customers at United Illuminating will, for one billing cycle, receive ResCom service, after being switched away from either their current competitive supplier, or Standard Service. It was not clear how many customers of the 870 were taking competitive supply versus Standard Service, although ResCom's report to the DPUC suggests there are customers currently taking service from another supplier which are affected.

It was also not clear how many suppliers are affected by the error, and will lose customers due to the ResCom enrollments. However, any affected suppliers will face lost revenues for at least one month, a long supply position (if the lost customer's load had been hedged), and the potential for permanent customer loss if the customer cannot later be re-enrolled due to inertia.

The genesis of the error dates back to January, when a batch of old ResCom enrollments were incorrectly released to the EDI platform for subsequent processing by the utility, rather than a queue of new enrollments. This error was quickly discovered, and none of these enrollments ultimately went through to the utility at that time. ResCom instructed its EDI vendor to have all of the erroneous enrollments either deleted entirely from the system, or modified such that their account status was designated as "Closed," and transaction status designated as "Cancelled."

However, unbeknownst to ResCom, approximately 1,100 of the 4,500 erroneous enrollments were incorrectly designated by the EDI vendor as "Inactive" rather than "Closed." This was not an issue until ResCom elected to migrate to a new EDI vendor.

As part of the migration, ResCom on March 13 sent its new EDI vendor a file of ResCom's United Illuminating customer data for uploading, including all open and closed accounts. In this process, the 1,100 erroneous "Inactive" accounts were treated as pending accounts, and forwarded to the utility for processing and enrollment.

The error was discovered by ResCom on April 11, at which time it was determined that 870 of the 1,100 erroneously labeled accounts had been accepted by UI for enrollment. The balance of the 1,100 accounts had been rejected by UI for erroneous or outdated information in the customer file.

ResCom attempted to see if any of the 870 enrollments could be reversed prior to the next meter read, but this was not possible.

On April 14, ResCom instructed its EDI vendor to issue drop requests for all 870 accounts.

ResCom informed the DPUC of the error on April 18. After discussions with Staff, it was agreed that ResCom shall contact affected customers by phone and mail as quickly as possible to explain the situation.

ResCom said that the letter will inform the customer of, "the need to re-enroll with their chosen suppliers." It is not clear if such language reflects a DPUC view that affected suppliers cannot use their original customer verification to re-enroll the customer (since the switch to ResCom was not authorized) and that instead the customer must pro-actively re-enroll, or if the language is only intended to facilitate an easier transition by having the customer work closely with their original supplier.

Barring a re-enrollment, ResCom's drop request will place customers onto Standard Service.

ResCom said that the letter and phone calls will also "offer" to reimburse customers for any lost savings that they may have incurred.