PUC Rules on Whether Electric Suppliers Subject to Assessment

The New Hampshire PUC has ruled that, under current law, electric suppliers are not subject to the assessment levied on various regulated entities to fund the Commission.

Competitive electric power suppliers, "are not subject to assessment by the Commission under RSA 363-A, as currently in effect ... because, under RSA 374-F:7, I, CEPS are 'not public utilities pursuant to RSA 362:2' and only public utilities are assessed under RSA 363-A," the PUC said.

Public Service Company of New Hampshire had protested the PUC's 2013 assessments because, in establishing the amounts to be assessed to various entities, the Commission did not include competitive electric power suppliers.

PSNH had argued, "[T]he Commission is the regulatory authority responsible for overseeing these entities and enforcing the requirements for them to operate in New Hampshire, and, therefore, they should be required to reimburse the Commission for its expenses. Further, these entities provide a service, the provision of electric power, that is identical to a service provided by PSNH. However, while PSNH's revenues from that service are included when calculating its assessment obligation, the revenues collected by competitive suppliers are not. Failing to include those entities in the assessment calculation when they are regulated by the Commission, and failing to treat revenue from substantially similar services in a substantially similar manner, raises significant question about whether the current assessment system comports with equal protection under state and federal law."

The PUC's finding was specifically made under current law, and was made in a proceeding relating to the 2013 assessment. The assessment mechanism is currently being investigated generically in Docket IR 13-038, where a straw proposal would recommend legislative changes such that electric suppliers and aggregators would be subject to the assessment in the following manner:

• Competitive Electric Power Suppliers (CEPS) would be assessed based on 33% of their New Hampshire retail electric revenues.

• A $1000 minimum assessment would apply to all gas and electric aggregators