PAPowerSwitch to List Specific Small Business Rates from Retail Suppliers

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced via Secretarial Letter the upcoming launch of a revamped section on www.PAPowerSwitch.com geared toward enhancing the electric shopping experience for Pennsylvania's small businesses, and directed licensed electric generation suppliers (EGSs) to begin utilizing the website's extranet availability and populate the new section with pricing and other information relevant to current offers in a given service territory.

The PUC has developed a section on PAPowerSwitch to provide small business owners with the capability to quickly compare rates and products of EGSs making offers in their area. Small commercial and industrial (C&I) customers, with a peak demand of 25 kilowatts (kW) or less, will be able to shop for their EGS in the same manner as residential customers currently do, including the ability to search by zip code or electric distribution company (EDC), and also sort EGS offers according to price per kW, price plan, alphabetically, or by other key areas.

Specifically, a third tab entitled "Shop for Your Small Business" will be added under "Shop for Electricity" that enables Small C&I customers to shop with competitive EGSs for their electric generation. While the 25 kW threshold is a guideline for small business shopping, the Commission acknowledges on the website that individual suppliers determine eligibility for their small business offers, which may vary from supplier to supplier.

While making the shopping experience for small business shoppers very similar to that of residential shoppers, the Commission has modified the small business section by inserting a "Deposit Required" column in the comparison chart. To accommodate the insertion of the new column, the Commission will now have a single column for "Introductory Prices & Discounts", and increase the number of characters under "Additional Information" for EGSs to provide additional information regarding the offer, or provide additional types of offers available to small business customers.

The Commission anticipates the launch of the new small business section on or about Monday, Sept. 24, 2012. Consistent with the standard for residential shopping, the Commission is only allowing EGSs licensed in Pennsylvania to be listed on www.PAPowerSwitch.com. EGSs who already have an account on www.PAPowerSwitch.com may immediately begin updating their pricing information as well as other terms and conditions for Small C&I customers.

"The Commission urges all licensed EGSs to be diligent in updating their pricing information. EGSs are reminded that they are obligated to provide accurate pricing information in all marketing materials and that their prices shall be presented in the standard pricing unit, pursuant to 52 Pa. Code § 62.77(a). A failure to keep prices accurate could lead to the loss of an EGS's privilege to be listed on the website," the PUC said.