N.Y. Directs Staff to Investigate, Report on Supplier Consolidated Billing

New York has directed Staff to investigate and report on supplier consolidated billing (called Consolidated ESCO Billing or CEB in New York), as part of its Reforming the Energy Vision order.

"CEB appears to address one of the most significant barriers to customer engagement particularly with providers of DER [distributed energy resources] products, and should be assessed. Staff should lead a collaborative of utilities, ESCOs, and other interested parties to investigate and evaluate operational issues required for CEB including how CEB can be constructed to be consistent with Commission rules and regulations including those governing termination of service for non-payment. Staff shall report on the progress of these two billing initiatives by September 1, 2015," the PSC said,

More broadly, the PSC also said that, "[e]nergy bills remain one of the primary vehicles by which customers obtain information about their energy usage and costs, and one of the main ways to facilitate greater customer engagement in energy decisions. A thorough review of the content and format of energy bills is consistent with our goal of maximizing the availability of information to energy consumers with minimal transactions costs. We therefore direct Staff to develop a proposal to increase the informational value of energy bills with the goal of enhancing customer engagement in energy purchase and usage decisions. Staff should use a consultative process with representatives of utilities, ESCOs, DER providers and consumer advocates, in developing its proposal."

However, the PSC declined to proceed with certain enhancements to utility consolidated billing (CUB) at this time, such as accommodating customer-specific ESCO bill messages. "We acknowledge these interests, but are also mindful of the parties' finite resources. We decline to require enhancements to CUB, and instead focus efforts on the review of CEB and bill content and format issues identified above," the PSC said.

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