Pennsylvania Issues $64,000 Settlement with Retail Supplier Regarding Slamming for Public Comment

The Pennsylvania PUC has sought public comment on a $64,000 settlement with Public Power, LLC regarding alleged slamming violations, prior to issuing an order on the settlement.

The settlement, which was first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com last year, would include a $64,450 payment defined as a "civil settlement amount", and also noted $22,000 in refunds made to customers affected by an accidental transmission of enrollment data which led to unauthorized enrollments.

As more fully described by Matters last year, the unauthorized enrollments resulted from a vendor's erroneous transmission of a large number of customer accounts in the PECO service territory to the database of Public Power's Electronic Data Interchange ('EDI') vendor. The incorrect list was one which the vendor had compiled when previously enrolling customers for another retail supplier.

The erroneous file included nearly 3,000 customer enrollments, of which 91% were rescinded prior to completion after the error was discovered. However, due to timing, about 260 customers were incorrectly switched to Public Power.

The settlement further noted that Public Power had taken corrective action and implemented revisions to its operating procedures which will act as safeguards against the transmission of erroneous or otherwise improper EGS enrollment data to the EDC. Among other safeguards, only when Public Power's customer database confirms that a valid TPV exists for a prospective customer, does the database now transmit that customer's enrollment information to Public Power's EDI vendor for transmittal to the EDC.