Regulator Upset With Supplier's Marketing Piece Referencing Months-Old Default Service Rate Increase

During a recent supplier working group meeting in Connecticut, regulators expressed frustration with a marketing piece from an electric supplier that emphasized months-old rate increases in the default service rate.

PURA discussed a mass marketing piece that was distributed to residential customers in early May 2015 in which the supplier alerts customers to the significant rate increase that occurred in January 2015: "a 53% increase to the generation rates of UI customers."

Notes from the workgroup meeting did not identify the supplier which used the marketing material in question.

The Authority noted that while factually correct, "this information is untimely and misrepresents current market conditions," as stated in a summary of the meeting.

Commissioner Michael Caron noted that the Authority cannot control this type of marketing. However, providing outdated or misleading information to mass market consumers does not serve the marketplace and is contrary to PURA's goal of working with the supply industry in forums like the supplier working group to further this market in Connecticut, PURA said