Pennsylvania PUC To Announce Upcoming Rulemaking On Residential Retail Supplier Marketing Regulations -- Potential Limitations On Robocalls

Quality Control, Oversight Of Marketing Vendors

Rules For Marketing Of Renewable Energy

The Pennsylvania PUC’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight (OCMO) will soon be announcing an upcoming rulemaking to review and update the Chapter 111 Residential Supplier Marketing Regulations (52 Pa. Code § 111)

The announcement will be formally made during the next CHARGE (Committee Handling Activities for Retail Growth in Electricity) conference call to be held Thursday, December 12 at 2:00 pm.

During such call, OCMO will also be inviting any interested party to submit informal comments. While informal comments may be submitted on any topic related to residential supplier marketing, OCMO is especially interested in obtaining advice and suggestions on the following topic areas:

• Telemarketing rules – see 52 Pa. Code § 111.10; including a possible reporting requirement for telemarketing analogous to the reporting requirement [notice to PUC and EDCs] for door-to-door marketing at 52 Pa. Code § 111.14, and potential limitations on caller ID spoofing and robocalls.

• Updating the sales verification procedures at 52 Pa. Code § 111.7 to accommodate new and evolving technologies.

• Quality control and oversight of marketing vendors – see 52 Pa. Code § 111.5.

• Updating rules and guidance on the marketing of renewable energy products – see 52 Pa. Code § 54.6 and 52 Pa. Code § 75.68.3

• Rules for direct mail marketing and in person marketing.

Informal comments should be emailed to the Office of Competitive Market Oversight at: RA-OCMO@pa.gov. As these are informal comments, they should NOT be addressed to or submitted to the Commission’s Secretary, a secretarial letter said

Informal comments are due by Friday, January 24, 2020.

"We advise all EGSs and NGSs, especially those currently serving residential customers, and those who may serve residential customers in the future, to participate in this CHARGE call," a secretarial letter said

Info on accessing the call can be found in the secretarial letter linked here

The CHARGE working group includes representatives of OCMO, various PUC bureaus, Electric Generation Suppliers (EGSs), Natural Gas Suppliers (NGS), Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs), Natural Gas Distribution Companies (NGDCs) and consumers that work together to informally resolve issues that arise in retail energy markets.

The agenda for the December 12 CHARGE call also includes:

1) The PUC’s Bureau of Technical Utility Services re: EGS bonding and an initiative to revise the EGS and NGS application packages.

2) PUC Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta re: keeping formal contact information up-to-date and filing procedures.

3) The PUC’s Office of Communications re: updates to PaPowerSwitch, PaGasSwitch, and PUC’s website.

4) The PUC’s Bureau of Consumer Services re: informal complaint procedures and reporting residential door-to-door marketing activity.

5) The PUC’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight re: announcing an upcoming rulemaking to review and update the Chapter 111 Residential Supplier Marketing Regulations and inviting informal comments from stakeholders.

The secretarial letter was filed in Docket L-2010-2208332