Utilities Ask N.Y. PSC To Defer Consideration of Proposed Muni Aggregation From Alliance Representing 300 Municipalities Until Generic Order Adopted

The joint New York utilities have asked that the New York PSC defer consideration of another "demonstration" opt-out municipal aggregation until the PSC issues a generic order on municipal aggregation, and a report on the experience at the Sustainable Westchester pilot is developed.

As first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, the Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance (MEGA), a New York local development corporation that manages aggregated procurement of energy products and services for 36 county governments and more than 275 municipal entities throughout the state, has sought approval from the PSC to conduct a "demonstration" two-year opt-out municipal aggregation program among a "small subsection of its participant municipalities."

The utilities said that MEGA's petition should be held in abeyance until the PSC rules on the generic community choice aggregation issues in Case 14-M-0224 (the "Generic CCA Proceeding"), there has been ample time to evaluate the ongoing Sustainable Westchester, Inc. CCA pilot program including its first annual report, and the application and requirements of the Commission's February 23, 2016 retail market reset order are clear

"[E]ach CCA demonstration or pilot program has the potential to be an exception to the rules and requirements that the utilities expect the Commission to put in place for CCA projects generally," the utilities noted

The utilities said that the MEGA Petition should not be implemented in advance of the Commission's determination in the generic proceeding on a variety of issues, including, among others, customer eligibility, pricing and price benchmarking, customer opt-out provisions, cancellation fees, and a host of customer data access and data privacy issues.

"A CCA order may be issued in the reasonably near future in the Generic CCA Proceeding. Should the Commission be inclined to grant the MEGA Petition in whole or in part, the Joint Utilities urge the Commission to condition its approval on compliance by MEGA with such an order," the utilities said