RESA: CL&P "May Be" Improperly Assigning Residential Rate Classification To Commercial Customers

Connecticut Light & Power (Eversource), "may be improperly assigning residential rate classifications to commercial customers," the Retail Energy Supply Association said in comments to PURA.

"Recently, RESA learned that Eversource may be improperly assigning residential rate classifications to commercial customers, such as towns, cemeteries, banks, ambulance services, schools, YMCAs, hardware companies, campgrounds, rehabilitation centers, clinics, lighting companies, farms and a multitude of limited liability companies," RESA said.

RESA was commenting on a draft order, first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, that would require "incidental" residential accounts, such as meters belonging to non-residential customers which have a residential classification, to be treated as residential customers -- meaning, among other things, that the only variable rate that could be offered to such incidental residential accounts would be a "variable-monthly" rate (static rate per month), whose rate must be provided in advance (more complex products would be prohibited).

"Given the restrictions on the pricing options available to residential customers and the Proposed Decision’s extension of those restrictions to residential accounts, if the Proposed Decision is adopted without change, the Authority will have significantly limited the ability of suppliers to offer a wide range of products to thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of non-residential customers," RESA said.

"Thus, consistent with the Authority’s precedent, the Authority should conclude that the contractual counterparty (not the EDCs’ classification of an account) should be the determining factor of whether a customer is classified as residential," RESA said.

Docket 14-07-19RE01