Choice Approved in New Service Territory with Nearly 1 Million Customers, With Additional Consumer Protections

In a recent rate case, the Illinois Commerce Commission approved the expansion of natural gas choice to small volume customers at Ameren Illinois.

Ameren Illinois serves 806,000 natural gas customers in more than 1,200 communities within a 43,700 square-mile territory.

Previously, only non-residential customers were eligible for competitive gas supply at Ameren under its transportation program, in contrast to the choice programs in place at North Shore Gas, Peoples Gas, and Nicor which are available to all customers.

Ameren's new Small Volume Transportation program will include GDS-1 (residential) customers, and GDS-2 (non-residential) customers with a highest average daily usage of less than 200 therms who opt to be included in the SVT program.

In approving Ameren's small volume transportation program, the ICC expressed, "concerns about the missteps by certain gas suppliers in the Northern Illinois market," and said that it, "believes additional consumer protections are necessary to prevent the same types of abuses in the AIC territory."

"While recent amendments to the Alternative Gas Supplier Law provide additional layers of scrutiny to the alternative gas supplier certification process, these provisions do not directly address the severity of the problems seen with the door-to-door sales model and its potential for customer confusion and/or misleading marketing. The Commission concludes that it is in the public interest to approve an SVT program at this time, but with the additional consumer protections discussed below," the ICC said.

Specifically, the ICC adopted the following additional customer protections for the small volume transportation program:

• A customer shall be absolved from paying any termination fees if, prior to the due date of their first bill, they notify the supplier that they are terminating the contract.

• When a customer has accepted service from a supplier after solicitation by a door-to-door salesperson, there shall be no termination fees assessed if the customer terminates during the first 6 billing cycles.

• If a supplier's marketing materials include a price comparison of the supplier rate and the gas utility rate, the depiction of such comparison shall display at least three years of data in no greater than quarterly increments and shall also display the supplier's offered price for the same or equivalent products or services for each of the same increments.

The Ameren small volume transportation program will include purchase of receivables.

"The Commission concludes that the record supports a finding that a UCB/POR program should be implemented in addition to the SVT program. The Commission believes there is ample evidence that a UCB/POR program enhances the success of a successful competitive program."

With respect to the POR discount rate, the Commission adopted Ameren and suppliers' agreement to use a single rate for both customer classes at the startup of the UCB/POR program.

The ICC also approved Rider GTA, which will charge small volume shopping customers for gas supply costs incurred when Ameren needs to liquidate default supply gas contracts because those customers will be served by an alternative supplier. The ICC adopted a three-year sunset provision for Rider GTA.

Additional details of the small volume choice program, to the extent they were not addressed in the ICC's rate case order (either as a contested issue or as an uncontested issue) will be addressed in a subsequent workshop and proceeding reviewing specific tariffs.

Docket 13-0192