Regulator Informs Retail Supplier Expiration, Rate Notice Not Required Where Confusion Would Result Due To Customer's Actions

In response to an inquiry, the Connecticut PURA has informed Public Power, LLC that the "Form 2" notice of contract expiration and rate change is not required to be sent to residential customers in instances where customers have already renewed with the supplier, or the customer has already dropped from the supplier's service.

Public Power, LLC has requested that PURA clarify whether suppliers must send Form 2 to customers in the instances where, prior to sending the notice: 1) a residential customer has renewed to a new product offered by their existing supplier with a different contract term or 2) a customer has already dropped from a particular licensed electric supplier’s generation service.

In the latter scenario, although the customer’s current supplier may have received notice of the pending change to another supplier or the EDC, Public Power noted that since switches only occur on the customer’s meter read date, the customer could still be receiving service from the original supplier at the time the Form 2 notice is to be sent.

PURA noted that Form 2 was created to facilitate compliance with Connecticut General Statutes (Conn. Gen. Stat.) §16-245o(g)(1). The statute provides, in pertinent part, that, "between thirty and sixty days, inclusive, prior to the expiration of a fixed price term for a residential customer, an electric supplier shall provide a written notice to such customer of any change to the customer’s electric generation price."

Pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(h)(8), electric suppliers are also required to provide customers with notice, "not less than thirty days or more than sixty days before the renewal date, of the renewal terms, including a summary of any new or altered terms, and of the option not to accept the renewal offer..."

PURA said that it understands that in some cases, licensed electric suppliers have chosen to satisfy both statutory requirements for fixed price renewal contracts with one notice containing all of the required customer information.

PURA said that, when implementing legislation, state law prescribes an examination of the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. "If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered."

"The statutes are clear in requiring notice without any exceptions. The Authority has discussed the importance of meaningful notice required by Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(g)(1) in other dockets, finding that a mere notification that a customer’s fixed contract would change did not comply," PURA said.

"However, in the limited circumstances described by Public Power, a Form 2 customer notification as required by Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(g)(1) would lead to an absurd result," PURA said.

"Where a residential customer has chosen to enter into a subsequent agreement with the same supplier, an otherwise required contract expiration notification has the potential to create unintended customer confusion. Where a residential customer has already left a particular supplier and sought generation service elsewhere, a notice from the original supplier would similarly elicit confusion when they had already chosen a different generation service provider. Moreover, the statute is specific in referencing 'expiration of a fixed price term.' In both scenarios described by Public Power, the looming expiration date has been already mooted by customer choice," PURA said

"Therefore, the Authority hereby confirms that licensed electric suppliers are not required to send a Form 2 notification in order to comply with Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(g)(1) if a customer has enrolled in a subsequent product or chosen an alternate generation services provider," PURA said

Public Power had also asked that PURA clarify that renewal notices under Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(h)(8) are also not required in the two situations described above due to the similar potential for customer confusion reasons; however, PURA's response only explicitly provided that the Form 2 expiration notices under Conn. Gen. Stat. §16-245o(g)(1) are not required for the situations described above.

Docket No. 13-07-18