Pennsylvania PUC Reports Slamming Complaints

The Pennsylvania PUC issued an annual report on customer complaints for 2010, including data on electric and gas slamming.

In 2009, the PUC's Bureau of Consumer Services did not receive any residential consumer complaints alleging slamming by an electric generation supplier or natural gas supplier. The PUC did record three residential complaints about slamming against a major natural gas distribution company in 2009.

In the newly posted 2010 report, the PUC said that its Bureau of Consumer Services received 83 allegations of slamming in the electric industry and 11 allegations of slamming in the gas industry. The PUC did not report how many of the allegations were sustained, and it did not specify what subset of these allegations were against competitive suppliers.

The PUC further reported that in 2010, PUC call center employees recorded information from 7,604 consumer contacts about competition in the energy industries. Most frequently consumers called to seek information about competition in general and to request information on changing a supplier (31 and 28 percent, respectively, of all contacts).

The PUC's report available here also lists, on page 77, the number of complaints for each electric supplier and gas supplier with more than five residential complaints in 2010.

Total residential complaints against competitive electric suppliers were 73 (up from 8 in 2009), and total residential complaints against competitive gas suppliers were 24 (down from 50 in 2009).