Retail Supplier To Make $17,000 Charitable Contribution in RPS Administrative Compliance Settlement

Ambit Northeast, LLC would make a $17,000 payment to Operation Fuel, in lieu of a civil penalty and finding of violation, under a settlement with the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel concerning the reporting of Ambit's 2013 RPS compliance

A draft PURA order would adopt the settlement without modification

The Connecticut PURA had previously issued a Notice of Violation against Ambit alleging Ambit failed to submit New England Power Pool Generation Information System (CIS) supporting documentation for seventeen months.

In a brief, Ambit had said it did not file GIS reports showing its compliance under the timeline required due to an oversight by its vendor, which did not include the GIS reports in a compliance filing made on behalf of Ambit. Ambit had requested that its vendor file the GIS reports in response to a preliminary PURA notice of findings in regards to 2013 compliance which had noted the lack of GIS reports for Ambit. With Ambit directing its vendor to file the GIS reports in response to the preliminary notice, Ambit believed it had corrected the issue. However, the vendor did not include the GIS reports in its subsequent filing, and Ambit was initially unaware of the oversight.

Notably, the issue could have been brought to light sooner (and perhaps avoiding the NOV process) had Ambit reviewed a proposed decision and final decision from PURA concerning 2013 RPS compliance of all LSEs, which found that Ambit had a shortfall of RECs (due to lack of properly filed GIS reports) for 2013 compliance. However, Ambit, believing that it had already corrected the issue, did not review such decisions, which would have alerted it to the problem, and would have provided an opportunity to correct the issue and file exceptions concerning its substantive compliance with purchasing necessary RECs, and mere administrative oversight in showing such compliance.