PUC Grants Utilities Delay in Implementing Phase II of Accelerated Switching

The Pennsylvania PUC has granted the FirstEnergy utilities a temporary waiver of the accelerated switching provisions, until August 31, 2015, which require that customers be permitted to complete multiple off-cycle switches within three-business days.

The FirstEnergy utilities have already implemented system changes which allow a customer to complete one off-cycle switch per billing cycle within three business days, but said that allowing multiple accelerated switches per billing cycle necessitated further system changes which could not be completed by June 15, 2015, the termination date of a previously granted waiver for metered accounts.

The FirstEnergy utilities said that allowing metered accounts to complete multiple accelerated switches per billing cycle will be implemented by August 31, 2015, and the PUC granted a requested waiver of the relevant regulations until such date

The FirstEnergy utilities reported that two or more switches within the same 30-day period were requested for only 0.3% of meters during the first quarter of 2015.

While the PUC granted the extension of the temporary waiver, "we are not issuing a determination as to whether the associated costs or expenses of FirstEnergy's alternative and final proposals to fully meet the requirements of 52 Pa. Code §§ 57.174 are reasonable or prudent for purposes of cost recovery," the PUC said.