Pennsylvania Requires Utilities to Develop Plans to Provide Retail Suppliers with Customer Account Numbers Outside of Customer Lists

The Pennsylvania PUC has adopted a final order directing the electric distribution companies to submit compliance plans facilitating Electric Generation Suppliers' access to the utility account numbers of newly enrolled customers in instances where the account number is not available from either the customer or from the Eligible Customer List (ECL).

A written order was not yet available. A PUC summary of the actions at yesterday's public meeting states that the order requires, "all electric distribution companies submit for the Commission's review and approval a compliance plan which will detail their plans for developing a passcode protected secure website portal that will provide electric generation suppliers (EGSs) access to customer account numbers."

According to a statement fro Commissioner James Cawley:

"In an effort to allow them to limit disclosure of their utility related information, customers are permitted to opt out of providing information regarding usage, account number, and service type to licensed EGSs. This important information is needed by EGSs to accurately make price offers and enroll customers. If customers later opt out of the ECL and choose to participate in the competitive market, often EGS cannot gain timely or accurate access to their account information."

"The purpose of our final order in this proceeding is to enable EGSs, with proper customer authorization, to obtain the account number necessary to enroll customers. It has been the experience of the marketplace that many customers are not in the habit of carrying around their electric utility account number when outside their home. This Order addresses that specific situation but does not address the circumstance of customers simply discarding their utility bill, or instances when customers have waived receipt of a monthly paper utility bill (and thus will not have account information readily available if called by a telemarketer or approached by a door-to-door solicitor)," Cawley said.

"Because of the narrowness of this Order, I encourage the interested parties to continue to review the effectiveness of this new account number lookup facility and to collect information on the difficulties that result from the restricted use of this system by EGSs. A more expansive use of the system will first require a showing that these restrictions create unnecessary barriers to further enrollments, and that expanded use of the system for other marketing situations does not impose unwarranted risks to customer privacy," Cawley said.

Docket M-2013-2355751