Maryland PSC Open to Short Extension of Date for Termination of Columbia Choice Program

The Maryland PSC deferred consideration of a date for the termination of Columbia Gas' choice program, as several commissioners appeared open to providing for a longer transition to allow the bulk of choice contracts to expire.

Columbia Gas proposed ceasing the choice program for all customers with the April 2012 billing cycle (which begins March 29). Washington Gas Energy Services opposed this mechanism, arguing that it would interfere with existing contracts, which WGES said should be allowed to expire under their existing terms per the PSC's directed "transition" plan.

At a minimum, the choice program will not cease with the April 2012 billing cycle because the Commission has deferred until April 11 adjudication of the program's termination date.

A large portion of WGES' choice contracts at Columbia will expire by July 2012. Additional contracts run for longer terms, including a handful that run through January 2014.

PSC Chairman Douglas Nazarian expressed a willingness to consider delaying the choice end date, for a short period and for existing contracts only, provided that doing so would not create a mess or further muddle things.

Commissioners were concerned with the cost of continuing the choice program for several months for existing contracts, but were frustrated with the lack of data available from Columbia regarding how much it would cost per month to maintain the choice program for existing contracts only, while ending it for any new enrollments and suppliers (thus eliminating costs for supplier initiation, new switches, etc.).

Costs of the choice program are currently included in base rates, and the PSC's decision to terminate the Columbia choice program was premised on allocating the currently collected choice administration costs to pay the sunk costs of COMAR 20.59 implementation. Nazarian chastised Columbia for previously coming before the Commission with a "precise" number for the cost associated with the choice program, in support of Columbia's desired termination of the program, but now saying that exact information on the cost of continuing the program to accommodate existing contracts is not available.

Columbia was directed to report on the costs of continuing the choice program for existing contracts.

Nazarian said that allowing all existing contracts to continue until their expiration is not practical, but would like to see the transition period extended for a few months, absent prohibitive costs or logistics.