New York PSC Grants Another Limited Further Extension Of Deadline By Which ESCOs Must Stop Serving Low-Income Customers

The Secretary of the New York PSC has granted another limited, 30-day extension of the compliance deadline by which ESCOs must stop serving assistance program participant (APP) customers

As previously reported, the PSC had extended the deadline for compliance with most of the ordering clauses of the APP prohibition order until June 26, 2017, as a result of pending litigation

With such litigation still unresolved, the joint utilities had requested a further extension until July 26, 2017 or for a longer period.

"In order to implement the requirements of the Prohibition Order, the Joint Utilities require time to finalize, translate, process, and deliver letters to low income customers, in addition to placing blocks on customer accounts. Moreover, additional time would be needed to allow ESCOs that may receive waivers to continue to serve low income customers. The Joint Utilities estimate that these actions will take approximately ten days. Given the current uncertainty regarding the timing of a decision in the pending legal action against the Commission, which was the basis for your prior implementation delay, the Joint Utilities request that you delay the implementation of the Prohibition Order for one month (i.e., to July 26, 2017) or for a longer period that you deem appropriate," the joint utilities had said

"Inasmuch as the Joint Utilities have shown a further extension is needed, the requirements of Ordering Clauses 1-3 and 5-11 of the Prohibition Order are further extended until July 26, 2017 in order to promote the fair, orderly and efficient conduct of this proceeding," the Secretary said in a notice extending the deadlines

Ordering Clauses 1-3 and 5-11 of the December 16 APP Prohibition Order are essentially all of the enacting provisions implementing the prohibition of ESCO service to APP customers, including the requirement for ESCOs to drop existing APP customers to default service (timing contingent on product type)

See the complete Ordering Clauses in our prior story (click here)

Ordering Clause 4 related to, for utilities with the ESCO Consolidated Billing Model, the development of draft "drop" letters concerning ESCO service to APP customers, and filing such letters with the PSC