New York Stays Effective Date of Certain Retail Market Changes, Including Recourse Provision for POR

Due to extended consideration of rehearing requests, the New York PSC has stayed several of the significant retail market changes contained in a February order.

Specifically, the PSC has stayed the following provisions of the February order until further action by the Commission:

• The provision that ESCO customers facing termination for non-payment can avoid termination by paying the lesser of ESCO or otherwise applicable default service charges, with any difference charged back to the ESCO (essentially subjecting such receivables to recourse).

• The requirement that utilities implement ESCO-specific purchase of receivables discount rates

• The prohibition on ESCOs serving customers participating in utility low income assistance programs, unless the ESCO offers a product that guarantees savings over what the customer would otherwise pay to the utility or offers an energy-related value-added service designed to reduce the customer's overall energy bill

• The requirement for third party verification of door-to-door and telesales, and the specific questions included in the TPV

• The requirement that ESCOs file quarterly historic prices with the PSC for small non-residential customers (residential price history reporting remains in effect)

• The requirement for ESCOs to post non-residential prices on Power to Choose

• Section 2.D.4.d. of the revised UBPs, specifically, "the revised requirements with [sic] regarding ESCO price reporting on the Power to Choose website, with regard to small non-residential customers, and the portion of that provision prohibiting the posting of introductory, promotional or teaser rates." [note: based on sentence construction, we read the stay of the introductory rate prohibition as applying to all customer classes, not just non-residential customers]

• The new definitions of "ESCO marketing representative" and "Small non-residential customer" that had been continued in the revised Uniform Business Practices

All other aspects of the February retail markets order remains in effect.