New York Staff Guts Accelerated Switching Proposal

Citing technical limitations cited by the utilities, Staff of the New York PSC has abandoned an accelerated switching proposal based on off-cycle switches, and instead proposes the retention of switching on an on-cycle meter read, with minor changes which will allow more switches to occur at the immediately next on-cycle read instead of waiting an additional cycle for completion.

Staff had originally proposed that the customer switching timeline for retail electric and natural gas customers be accelerated to five business days.

However, Staff said that the, "utilities explained that off-cycle switching cannot be accomplished in a timely and cost-effective manner at this time."

Staff's new proposal provides that, for changes in electricity supplier, where the customer switches between ESCOs or between an ESCO and a distribution utility, the switch would occur on the next scheduled meter read date so long as the enrollment request is received by the distribution utility at least 5 business days before the scheduled meter read date.

This shortens the current 15 calendar day enrollment window.

Current rules regarding special meter reads would not change.

There would be no change in the 15 calendar day natural gas enrollment window.

To further allow switches to make the immediately next enrollment window, Staff proposes that the customer's three-day cancellation period should run concurrently with the ESCO and utility switching processes. Currently, the UBP requires the three-day cancellation period to run prior to an ESCO submitting an enrollment to the utility.

However, with the change, Staff also proposes that, for telephonic enrollments, in which the ESCO sends the customer the sales agreement via US Mail, the ESCO shall provide for two business days for the customer to receive the sales agreement.

Case 98-M-1343 et. al.