Illinois Commerce Commission Seeks to Move Forward Retail Market Customer Protection Rules After JCAR Prohibition

The Illinois Commerce Commission has issued a "Post Prohibition Proposed Order" concerning proposed customer protection rules for the competitive retail electric market, under which the ICC is seeking briefs on its prior second notice order in the case.

The ICC has been addressing the electric customer protection rules, under Part 412, for several years (Docket 09-0592).

As only reported by Matters, the Illinois Joint Committee on Administrative Rules has prohibited the filling and adoption of the electric consumer protection rules as most recently proposed by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

JCAR said that it prohibited the filing of the rulemaking, "because unresolved issues remain in the rulemaking that JCAR deems a serious threat to the public interest."

Although JCAR did not cite any specific provisions of the rules in its prohibition, two of the most contested issues in the rule, which led the rule to be contested at JCAR, were the proposed $50 cap on small volume early termination fees, and the prohibition on the use of a Illinois gas utility name or logo when marketing electricity.

In the Post Prohibition Proposed Order issued August 22, the ICC said, "To comply with JCAR's Objection and Prohibition of Filing, the Commission determines that the Proposed Revisions to Part 412 as set for in the Second Notice Order issued on November 22, 2011 is attached to this order and Parties are directed to file comments in the form of Briefs on Exceptions and/or Reply Briefs on Exceptions."

As noted above, the Post Prohibition Proposed Order includes the proposed Part 412 rules as contained in the November 22 second notice order.

This means the proposed rules still contain the contested early termination fee and affiliate name/logo provisions, with language reproduced below, which will likely be the subject of exceptions:

"Any contract between a RES [retail electric supplier] and a customer that contains an early termination fee shall disclose the amount of the early termination fee or the formula used to calculate the termination fee, provided that any early termination fee or penalty shall not exceed $50 total regardless of whether or not the contract is a multiyear contract. Any contract containing an early termination fee shall provide the customer the opportunity to contact the RES to terminate the contract without any termination fee or penalty within 10 business days after the date of the first bill issued to the customer for products or services provided by the RES. A customer relying on this provision to avoid an early termination fee shall be precluded from relying upon this provision for 12 months following the date the customer terminated his or her sales contract. The contract shall disclose the opportunity and provide a toll-free phone number that the customer may call in order to terminate the contract. This requirement does not relieve the customer of obligations to pay for services rendered under the contract until service is terminated.

"A RES shall not be permitted to market power and energy service to residential customers using a similar name (where any part of the RES name contains any part of the utility name) or logo to that of an existing electric utility or natural gas utility in Illinois. This section does not apply to an electric utility serving or seeking to serve retail customers, including residential customers, pursuant to Section 16-116 of the Public Utilities Act."

The proposed order contemplates that the ICC will submit the post-exceptions proposed rules to JCAR, to begin the second notice period required prior to adoption.