NiMo Online Comparison of ESCO, Default Service Costs Expected to Go Live in Early July

Niagara Mohawk expects to launch its online comparison of ESCO and default service costs in early July, it informed the New York PSC in a report on a collaborative process.

As previously reported, the PSC directed implementation of the online comparison cost tool in NiMo's most recent rate cases, for residential electric and natural gas customers. The online tool will provide ESCO customers their total bill (supply and delivery) as billed using the ESCO supply charges over the past 12 months, as well as the individual monthly bills during this period, and for comparison will also provide the supply plus delivery costs using shadow-billed default supply costs over the same period.

NiMo currently anticipates that the online cost comparison tool will be available sometime between June 28 and July 12, 2013.

NiMo reported that parties reached a consensus on disclaimer language to be included on the online comparison tool. The full language can be found here (page 9), but notable excerpts include:

• "A comparison of a bill that includes marketer charges with a utility bill in any single period may be affected by the utility's monthly adjustments for prior periods, one-time charges or very short-term changes in energy and natural gas prices. It is therefore recommended that comparisons be made over a longer period of time and, if possible, over an entire year.

• "If the supply service purchased from an ESCO includes a value-added feature such as a price that is fixed for a period of time, green energy, an energy equipment repair package or airline miles, the costs of this value-added feature may be reflected in the charges from your ESCO. The supply service provided by National Grid, however, does not include such value added services. Keep this in mind when interpreting the results of this bill comparison.

• "National Grid's energy and natural gas prices vary from month to month in response to market forces. Some ESCOs offer a supply service at a fixed price per unit (kilowatt hour of electricity or therm of gas) for the duration of a contract. A fixed price contract may be an attractive choice for consumers who want to lock in a certain price. Fixed price contracts, however, do not and cannot guarantee that the customer will save money, in any given month or over a longer comparison period. In some months, the contract's fixed price could be lower than the variable price offered for supply service by National Grid. In other months, the contract's fixed price may be higher than the National Grid price. Please keep that in mind when interpreting the results of this bill comparison."

The collaborative also studied providing similar ESCO versus default service cost comparisons directly on customer bills and in communications to low-income customers. However, no consensus was reached on these items, and therefore they will be addressed in the generic retail markets investigation.

Cases 12-E-0201 and 12-G-0202