PSEG Long Island Proposes Collaborative on LIPA Choice Program

PSEG Long Island has proposed convening a collaborative to explore electric choice issues at the Long Island Power Authority.

In an application for a three-year rate plan, PSEG Long Island said, "There is essentially no merchant power development activity and, effectively, no competitive wholesale power market in Zone K. This is largely due to the fact that LIPA has sufficient capacity and purchased power under contract. To encourage capacity development, LIPA has had to support new capacity by entering into long term PPAs. This tends to impede the viability of retail choice programs on Long Island"

"In PSEG LI's view, it is in the best interest of LIPA and the consumers it serves to move to a more competitive generation market on Long Island, reflective of the competitive market that exists in the rest of New York State. We are proposing to establish a new proceeding in which interested parties will undertake a collaborative process to consider if it is feasible to enhance retail choice in LIPA's service territory, and if so, what steps should be taken to do so," PSEG LI said.

"The development of a more robust retail choice program requires consideration of numerous capacity assignment, cost recovery, rate, service and tariff issues. PSEG LI only recently assumed responsibility for LIPA's system in 2014 and we have not yet had the opportunity to consider retail choice-related issues in depth. To begin a discussion of these issues we propose to convene a collaborative process to examine retail choice-related issues. Participants in the process would include representatives of PSEG LI and LIPA, DPS, marketers, consumer groups and other interested parties. Through the collaborative process, we hope to identify retail choice-related issues and develop a widely 1 supported resolution of those issues," PSEG LI said.

At this time, LIPA has approximately 4,300 retail choice customers.

In the interim, however PSEG LI is proposing certain limited changes to the tariff provisions governing retail choice to conform those provisions to the manner in which the program actually operates. For example, the tariff contains references to a single-bill option that LIPA is "unable" to offer at this time, so PSEG LI is proposing to remove the single bill option.