Choice State PSC Issues Final Order Adopting Utility Prepay Pilot, Rules on Contested Retail Supplier Issue

The Maryland PSC issued a final order adopting a prepaid electricity and dual-fuel (gas) pilot program at Baltimore Gas & Electric

The PSC had previously issued an order setting forth much of the design of the program, with a handful of issues left to be adjudicated

One of the remaining issues was, for customers on competitive retail supply, who may be included in the prepay pilot while still on competitive supply, what retail generation rate to use for determining the customers' prepay charges and balance.

BGE had proposed to use SOS rates in calculating the prepayment balance for shopping customers, citing implementation costs that would be incurred to use supplier-specific rates for such calculation. WGL Energy had recommended that supplier-specific rates be used

The PSC adopted BGE's proposal to use SOS rates to calculate the prepayment balance for shopping customers

"We agree with Staff and BGE that the programmatic costs of utilizing retail choice rates instead of SOS rates for purposes of calculating a customer’s daily balance is not warranted for purposes of this temporary pilot program. Although it may be necessary should this Program be extended to all BGE customers on a permanent basis, the additional costs of this feature do not warrant its inclusion during this pilot phase. Additionally, BGE will inform retail suppliers regarding which customers are participating in the Program, and the suppliers will be able to view the prior 12 months of their customers’ bills online," the PSC said

The prepay pilot, which is now authorized to be implemented, will include 1,000 customers