PUC Approves $86,000 Settlement with Retail Supplier

The Pennsylvania PUC has approved a settlement under which Public Power, LLC will pay a $64,000 civil settlement amount, plus issue customer refunds, to resolve alleged slamming violations stemming from a file transmission error.

The settlement had been first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com last year

As more fully described in our prior story, the settlement resolves allegations of slamming and all possible liability and claims related to an accidental transmission of an incorrect data file which led to erroneous, unauthorized requests for enrollment with Public Power for nearly 3,000 customers, of which 91% were rescinded prior to completion after the error was discovered.

The settlement includes the following actions by the company:

• Paying a civil settlement amount of $64,450, of which it agrees not to recover any portion from Pennsylvania consumers;

• Providing a refund, totaling $22,161.68, to each of the 263 customers physically switched to Public Power for the electric generation portion of their bill for the time they were served by Public Power, and notifying the PUC when these refunds have been made;

• Providing written notice to the PUC of any changes to its marketing practices; and

• Implementing revisions to its operating procedures

The incident occurred in 2011 under the prior ownership of Public Power, LLC.

Public Power provided the following statement to Matters:

"Public Power values each and every customer and the choice they've made to trust us as their energy supplier.

"This incident occurred in 2011, prior to our parent company, Crius Energy's, ownership of Public Power. Upon learning of it we immediately responded and fully cooperated with the investigation, as acknowledged by the Commission.

"Customer slamming allegations in our industry are unfortunate and serious and Public Power treats compliance as a critical part of our operations and our commitment to protecting customers.

"The company's compliance efforts are holistic including a dedicated department, processes and controls to protect our customers and avoid slamming. As acknowledged by the Commission, 'Public Power has established a Quality Control Department [now called the Compliance Department] to follow-up with new and prospective customers and to monitor the performance of third-party sales agents. As a result, Public Power has demonstrated that it has taken appropriate action to address the conduct and to avoid similar incidents in the future.'"