FirstEnergy EDCs Seek Temporary Waiver of Certain Accelerated Switching Rules

The FirstEnergy Pennsylvania electric distribution companies have sought a temporary waiver of the accelerated switching requirements which require multiple off-cycle switches to be completed within three business days the same billing cycle

Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power said that they will implement, by December 15, 2014, an interim accelerated switching mechanism which will allow all customers to request one off-cycle switch per billing cycle which shall be completed within three business days for metered accounts, with any additional requests being processed on-cycle for that given bill period.

For metered accounts, a meter read will occur to delineate the supply portions of the cycle. Customers will receive only one invoice for the total billing period.

The FirstEnergy utilities said that a second phase of modifications to its backoffice systems will allow multiple shopping decisions, or switches, during the same billing period no later than December 31, 2015.

The utilities said that they, "stand ready to offer a manually-processed second switch per month to customers who have already sought an off-cycle switch in the same billing period under limited circumstances until Phase II is completed."

"Such limited situations might include instances of verified slamming, or periods of severe weather paired with unprecedented pricing spikes, such as seen during early 2014. In the event it became necessary to effectuate this second switch, the Companies would, upon a customer call to the EDC requesting a switch under such extraordinary circumstances, process a customer's request to drop their EGS by temporarily reverting the customer to default service within the required three business days, following which the Companies would provide the switch to whichever EGS was selected at the customer's next scheduled meter read," the utilities said.