PSC Staff File List Of Topics For Phase III Of Retail Market Working Group

Staff of the Maryland PSC has issued a response to a data request from the PSC in which Staff was asked to provide a list of topics to be included in Phase III of the working group considering issues related to competitive markets and retail gas and electric choice (RM 62)

In response, Staff stated, "Parties discussed the merits of several issues in their Comments indicating some amount of disagreement regarding matters included in Phase II and pending matters in Phase III of RM62."

Staff said that the following topics have been, "offered for discussion," in Phase III, though Staff did not explicitly endorse any specific list of issues for Phase III in its response.

• The definition of energy consultant and whether there should be a bonding requirement for an entity that fills this role;

• Development of an application to become an energy consultant;

• Development of brochure containing information for consumers about Historical and Interval Usage data and its sharing with third-party service providers;

• Plan of development and improvement for the Commission’s web portal to include both gas and electricity supply, contracting information, and customer education regarding Choice;

• Treatment of discrepancy of offers on the Commission’s web portal as compared with the retail supplier’s web page;

• Web-based and wallet enrollment;

• Advance electronic notice of rate changes;

• Limited additional non-residential consumer protections;

• Method of retail choice budget billing; and

• Method of utility cost recovery where required for items in RM62.

Staff also reported on the current reconciliation balances (which for most customer classes is positive) from the POR program, and the zero-ing out of negative discount rates. Certain stakeholders have proposed using such balances to fund any needed utility system or related changes implicated by retail market changes which may be undertaken

The balances at BGE and Pepco exceed $1 million when aggregating across customer classes (the BGE reconciliation balance is $1.5 million for the residential class alone)

See Staff's data response for the specific balances