Maryland PSC Opens Rulemaking Docket on Switching Period

The Maryland PSC has initiated Administrative Docket RM 40 to consider revisions to the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) 20.52.03, Electric Standard Offer Service, regarding the switching period pertaining to retail electricity supply.

The PSC will hold a rulemaking session on August 9 to consider whether to publish proposed revisions to COMAR 20.52.03 as drafted by Technical Staff or as revised based on comments received during the rulemaking session.

Technical Staff said that 20.52.03 is proposed to be revised so that the switching period pertaining to retail electricity supply is consistently stated in COMAR 20.53 and COMAR 20.52.

COMAR 20.53, under RM 17, established that enrollments may be completed on the next scheduled meter if submitted 12 days, or earlier, before such read.

COMAR 20.52 still contains references to the prior 17-day enrollment window.

Staff's revisions would also eliminate references to SOS service which are now obsolete, including references to Type III service, which has been supplanted by hourly-priced service.

However, one of Staff's revisions would modify 20.52.03.02B to read:

"New Customer. A customer establishing a new service, after the service periods specified in COMAR 20.52.02, shall receive SOS unless the customer affirmatively selects a competitive electricity supplier."

The current language reads:

"New Customer. A customer establishing a new service, during the service periods specified in COMAR 20.52.02, shall receive SOS."

Although Staff did not highlight the modification as an indication of a policy change, the language could be read to require that customers be allowed to take competitive supply at service initiation without having to be served under SOS for at least one billing cycle.

At the very least, the language, if not mandating such policy immediately, is written in a manner that could support such a future policy without having to re-open a rulemaking addressing the issue.

Allowing customers to take competitive supply at service initiation continues to be an issue discussed by a working group, and is among the enhancements identified by Staff which could be funded by using over-collections resulting from the POR discount rates.