Santanna Natural Gas Seeks Relief from Reporting Requirements in ABC License

Santanna Natural Gas Corporation has petitioned the Illinois Commerce Commission to eliminate certain reporting requirements imposed on Santanna when it was licensed as an Illinois electric agent, broker, and consultant.

In licensing Santanna as an ABC, the ICC required Santanna to: notify the Commission of every complaint it receives within 24 hours of receiving the complaint; specify in its written notification the nature of the complaint, the agency, utility, or individual who reported the complaint, and the relief requested by Complainant; and provide to the Commission's Consumer Services Division monthly reports on the status of pending complaints, including resolutions and a summary of the status of unresolved complaints.

In that June 2010 order, the Commission also provided that, after a year, Santanna may petition the Commission to review and determine the need to maintain the above reporting requirements as a condition of approval, based on Santanna's market presence and complaint record, if any.

With respect to customer complaints relating to Santanna's operations as an ABC, there have been no formal complaints filed against Santanna at the Commission since Santanna's certification as an ABC. During this two-year period, there have only been four informal inquiries from the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of the State of Illinois; however, they involved only two customers, both commercial customers.

Santanna also self-reported 23 inquiries during this same two-year period.

Santanna has approximately 1,200 commercial customers that it has enrolled with its sole retail electric supplier, Direct Energy. "[M]ost of Santanna's self-reported inquiries were related to contracting and billing issues. The majority of these inquiries were the result of customer confusion about the Unforced Capacity Charge (the 'UCAP'). The UCAP is a tariff fee charged to all suppliers (and passed through to all customers) in the PJM power pool ... The UCAP charge can be very confusing for customers that are not familiar with all of the charges and fees associated with electric distribution and delivery," Santanna said.

Santanna has not received any informal complaints from any agencies since August 2011, and there have not been any self-reported inquiries since November 2011.

"Santanna submits that it has met the Commission's implicit requirements for elimination of the reporting requirements," Santanna said.