PUC Approves $150,000 Settlement With Retail Suppler

The Pennsylvania PUC has approved a $150,200 settlement between Energy Services Providers, Inc. and U. S. Gas & Electric, Inc. (collectively d/b/a Pennsylvania Gas & Electric) and the PUC's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, to resolve a PUC Staff investigation into the alleged slamming of 10 customers with over 300 accounts, due to what USG&E said was an individual subverting USG&E's internal controls.

The $150,000 settlement comes after an earlier $75,000 settlement was rejected by the PUC as inadequate. The new $150,000 settlement had been first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com in April.

The new settlement's civil penalty represents the following: $108,000 for the 108 accounts that were physically switched to receive electric generation or natural gas supply service from USG&E; and $42,200 for the 211 customer accounts for which the process of switching to USG&E was initiated but for which the switch was not completed.

Additionally, USG&E will provide to each of the customers, who had one or more of the 108 accounts physically switched to USG&E, a refund for the entire electric generation or natural gas supply portion of their bill for the period of time they were served by USG&E, net of any amounts already rebated to customers, not to exceed 60 days.

The settlement also calls for various reporting requirements, which the PUC modified slightly by requiring reporting of ongoing compliance and updates on actions potentially taken against USG&E in other states.

USG&E provided the following statement to Matters:

"Over the last two years, Pennsylvania Gas & Electric has worked with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ('PUC') to reach settlement terms acceptable to both parties. Those terms were approved on October 2, 2014."

"We take compliance very seriously and, as the PUC stated, we have put tremendous procedures in place to eliminate occurrences such as this from happening in the future," said Kevin McMinn, Chief Operating Officer of U.S. Gas & Electric, Inc.

In an earlier statement filed with the PUC in support of the settlement USG&E explained, "It should be noted that the entirety of the allegations in this matter concern the actions of a single individual working for a single vendor and occurred over a very short period of time. All of the alleged switches involve this agent's employee deliberately acting in a manner that was contrary to all policy and training. Upon discovery, this person was not only terminated, but permanently embargoed. That is, PAG&E will not participate in any relationship with any vendor that employs this individual."