Briefly

Retail Suppliers Protest PG&E Green Tariff Proposal

As expected, the Alliance for Retail Energy Markets has protested Pacific Gas & Electric's application (see earlier story) to offer bundled service customers a value-added product in the form of a REC product. "In short, if PG&E is interested in providing competitive, innovative products and services to customers, as ESPs [electric service providers] have been doing since 1998, it should do so through a competitive affiliate, so as preclude direct harm to competitive markets and to ensure that customers have meaningful alternatives to meet their environmental goals," AReM said. Noting that PG&E cited support from various municipalities for its application, AReM said that, "to help the cities and towns that are eager to help their residents and businesses surpass the requirements of the Renewable Portfolio Standard ('RPS'), the Commission could post on its website a list of entities who are willing and able to manage Green-E RECs programs for the cities and town (including PG&E should it choose to form a competitive affiliate for that purpose)."

Calif. PUC to Consider Disparate Charges for Customer Data Levied on ESPs Versus Third Parties

The scope of the California PUC proceedings reviewing electric utility applications to implement third-party access to customer usage data (see prior story), will include consideration of, "pricing issues [that] arise concerning Community Choice Aggregators and Electric Service Providers," whose access to such customer usage is governed by different tariffs and fees. Retail suppliers had protested the utilities' proposal to offer the third-party data access at no fee, given the existing charges levied on ESPs and CCAs for such data. Retail suppliers said that such an arrangement would result in ESPs and CCAs subsidizing the access provided to other parties, and further noted that competitive supply customers would pay twice for such data access, both to their supplier to cover any fees and through base rates supporting the free access to non-ESP, non-CCA third parties.

Ecotality Sues Calif. PUC Over Settlement with NRG Which Includes EV Investment

Ecotality, Inc. has filed a suit at the California First District Court of Appeal against the California PUC regarding its settlement with NRG Energy (relating to an energy crisis supply contract) under which NRG Energy agreed to make certain investments in Electric Vehicle infrastructure. Ecotality alleged that, "[b]y granting NRG the right to exclude other competitors for a period of 18 months from using the EVCS infrastructure, the Agreement allows NRG to saturate the EVCS market and further cement its substantial market advantage by virtue of this publicly subsidized first-mover advantage." Ecotality also alleged that the agreement, "erect[s] new barriers to entry in the California EVCS market which Petitioner and others must now overcome, including the immediate creation of a scarcity of suitable locations for EVCS equipment installation by allowing NRG, subsidized by ratepayer funds, to swiftly capture the prime geographic locations for its equipment." NRG was quoted as disputing the allegations, and said that the agreement will not prevent investment by other EV service providers