STATE OF CONNECTICUT PUBLIC UTILITIES REGULATORY AUTHORITY : : : : : COMMENTS OF RETAIL ENERGY SUPPLY ASSOCIATION

Transcription

1 STATE OF CONNECTICUT PUBLIC UTILITIES REGULATORY AUTHORITY PURA INVESTIGATION INTO REDESIGN OF THE RESIDENTIAL ELECTRIC BILLING FORMAT - REVIEW OF SUMMARY INFORMATION, IMPLEMENTATION AND DISPLAY DOCKET NO RE05 APRIL 20, 2018 COMMENTS OF RETAIL ENERGY SUPPLY ASSOCIATION The Retail Energy Supply Association ( RESA ) 1 hereby submits its comments in response to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority s ( Authority ) April 11, 2018 Notice of Request for Written Comments ( Notice ) in the above-captioned proceeding. BACKGROUND During the 2014 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed Public Act 14-75, An Act Concerning Electric Customer Consumer Protection (the Act ). Section 1 of the Act (as modified by Section 58 of Public Act and later codified at Connecticut General Statutes section d) required, among other things, that the Authority open a proceeding to redesign the standard billing format to include the placement of the following items on the front page of the bills for residential customers receiving service from electric suppliers (1) the electric generation service price; (2) the term and expiration date of such price; (3) any change to such price effective for the next billing cycle (the Next Generation Rate ); (4) the cancellation fee, if applicable; (5) notification that such price is variable, if applicable; (6) the Standard Service rate; (7) the term and expiration date of the Standard Service rate; (8) the dollar amount 1 The comments expressed in this filing represent the position of the Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA) as an organization but may not represent the views of any particular member of the Association. Founded in 1990, RESA is a broad and diverse group of more than twenty retail energy suppliers dedicated to promoting efficient, sustainable and customer-oriented competitive retail energy markets. RESA members operate throughout the United States delivering value-added electricity and natural gas service at retail to residential, commercial and industrial energy customers. More information on RESA can be found at

2 that would have been billed for the electric generation services component had the customer been receiving Standard Service; and (9) an electronic link or website address to the Rate Board and the toll-free telephone number and other information necessary to enable the customer to obtain Standard Service ( Summary Information ). 2 On January 21, 2015, PURA issued a decision requiring implementation of the requirements of Section 1 of the Act and re-establishing the Electronic Business Transaction ( EBT ) Working Group to assist in the implementation process. 3 The EBT Working Group process identified several issues that were not specifically addressed in the Decision and/or that required clarification. In response, the Authority reopened the proceeding 4 and issued a clarifying decision that, inter alia, determined that the Next Rate must appear on bills before those charges are incurred by the customer to allow the customer time to negotiate a lower rate or opt out of the upcoming rate and that Summary Information need not be provided on bills issued to incidental residential accounts ( IRAs ). 5 On February 16, 2018, the Office of Consumer Counsel ( OCC ) filed a motion for an emergency interim order to protect customers from purportedly inaccurate and misleading electric bills ( OCC Motion ) 6 and issued interrogatories to The Connecticut Light and Power Company d/b/a Eversource Energy ( Eversource ) and The United Illuminating Company ( UI ) 2 P.A , 1; P.A , See, generally, Docket No , PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format, Decision (Jan. 21, 2015) ( Decision ). 4 See, generally, Docket No , PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format - Reopening, Decision (Mar. 18, 2015). 5 See, generally, Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Decision (Aug. 12, 2015) ( RE01 Decision ). 6 See, generally, Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Motion No

3 (together, the electric distribution companies or EDCs ). 7 On February 23, 2018, the Authority issued a notice requesting comments on the OCC Motion. 8 Several participants, including RESA, filed comments in response to the OCC Motion. 9 On March 28, 2018, the Authority issued a decision that directed the EDCs to display Not Provided for the Next Generation Rate or leave the field blank on a customer s bill when an electric supplier does not timely provide the EDC with the information. 10 The Authority also reopened this docket to evaluate a permanent solution. 11 By letter dated April 6, 2018, UI indicated that it intended to continue to follow its existing practice of treating the Next Generation Rate information as current until it is updated by a supplier. 12 On April 9, 2018, Eversource filed a letter in support of the UI Letter. 13 On April 11, 2018, the Authority issued the Notice and requested written comments on (a) whether Eversource and UI would continue to object to complying with the Next Rate Decision if the Authority made certain clarifications to that decision, including that [s]uppliers must update the Next Generation Rate monthly, two months in advance of the upcoming 7 See, generally, Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Office of Consumer Counsel s First Set of Interrogatories (Feb. 16, 2018). 8 See, generally, Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Notice of Request for Written Comments Motion 7 (Feb. 23, 2018). 9 Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation Into Redesign of the Residential Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Retail Energy Supply Association Comments in Opposition to Office of Consumer Counsel Motion for Emergency Interim Order (Mar. 14, 2018), Comments of the Connecticut Light and Power Company d/b/a Eversource Energy (Mar. 14, 2018), Written Comments of The United Illuminating Company (Mar. 14, 2018), Comment of AARP in Support of Motion of the Office of Consumer Counsel for Emergency Interim Order to Protect Customers from Inaccurate & Misleading Electric Bills (Mar. 12, 2018). 10 Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation Into Redesign of the Residential Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Decision (Mar. 28, 2018) ( Next Rate Decision ) (opening the Docket No RE04 proceeding). 11 Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation Into Redesign of the Residential Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Decision (Mar. 28, 2018) (opening this proceeding). 12 Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, UI Correspondence (Apr. 6, 2018) (the UI Letter ). 13 Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation into Redesign of the Residential Electric Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Eversource Correspondence (Apr. 9, 2018) (the Eversource Letter ). 3

4 consumption period, regardless of whether the customer s contractual rate changes or not ; (b) what clarification is needed to make clear that the RE01 Decision required Licensed Electric Suppliers to provide submissions monthly to the EDCs of the Next Generation Rate at least two (2) months in advance of the next consumption period for all residential customers... ; and (c) UI s April 6, 2018 letter and Eversource s April 9, 2018 letter. 14 RESA hereby submits its comments in response to the Notice. COMMENTS A requirement that suppliers provide the EDCs with Next Generation Rate information every month regardless of whether the customer s contractual rate changes would not resolve any issues that might exist regarding the provision of accurate Next Generation Rate Information and would place an undue burden on suppliers. Thus, for the reasons discussed more fully below, the Authority should not require suppliers to provide the EDCs with Next Generation Rate information every month regardless of whether the customer s contractual price is changing. Instead, the Authority should continue the current practice of only requiring suppliers to provide the EDCs with an updated Next Generation Rate when the information will be changing. In the Notice, the Authority implies that suppliers have been required to provide Next Generation Rate information each month regardless of whether it was changing as a result of the RE01 Decision. 15 However, the RE01 Decision did not specify how frequently 14 Notice, at 1, 2 (emphasis in original). 15 Id. at 2 (requesting that participants [e]xplain, with reference to the language on pages 12 and 13 of the August 2015 Decision, what, if any, further clarification by the Authority is needed by the EDCs to make clear that the August 2015 Decision required Licensed Electric Suppliers to provide submissions monthly to the EDCs of the Next Generation Rate.... ) (emphasis in original). 4

5 the Next Generation Rate must be updated; it simply required that this information be provided on a timely basis. 16 Moreover, as the Authority is aware, it has not been the practice of the EDCs to require suppliers to provide the Next Generation Rate information on a monthly basis. 17 In fact, in November 2015, Eversource advised the Authority that, if it did not receive any information from suppliers, it would print Not Provided on customer bills but Eversource also informed the Authority that, if it received information from a supplier, that information would continue to be printed on the bill until it received an update. 18 The EBT Standards also provide, in pertinent part The [Supplier s] enrollment request initially sets the enrollment rate, this initial enrollment rate will also be presented as the Next Cycle Rate. This value will only update when a change transaction is submitted [by a Supplier] to the utility. 19 Additionally, a requirement that suppliers provide the EDCs with Next Generation Rate information every month will not increase the accuracy of the information provided to customers and may actually result in fewer customers receiving timely Next Generation Rate information. Currently, if a supplier has a twelve month fixed price contract with a customer, it need only transmit the Next Generation Rate information to the EDC at the start of the contract term and then again when the contract term is nearing its natural end (e.g., to be displayed on the month 11 bill to show the customer the price (s)he will pay beginning in month 13 the first month of the renewal contract term). If suppliers are required to provide Next Generation Rate information every month, the opportunities for error increase significantly because suppliers now have to 16 See RE01 Decision, at 17 ( Suppliers must timely provide the information that is required by Conn. Gen. Stat. Gen. Stat d(a)(2). ). 17 See, e.g., Docket No RE01, PURA Investigation Into Redesign of the Residential Billing Format Billing Format Clarifications, Eversource Compliance Filing (Nov. 16, 2015). 18 Id. ( It is important to note, when a rate is sent through EDI, that rate will be printed on the bill until the next cycle rate is updated through a subsequent EDI change transaction. ) (emphasis added). 19 Eversource s Response to Interrogatory OCC-3 (Feb. 23, 2018). 5

6 provide updated Next Generation Rate information every one of the 12 months of the term, instead of just twice (i.e., at the beginning of the term and as the term is nearing completion). As a consequence, the opportunity for mistakes will be increased six fold resulting in a higher likelihood that customers will receive a Not Provided message or an incorrect Next Generation Rate more frequently. For longer term agreements, the issue will become even further pronounced. 20 For example, a supplier that enters into thirty-six month, fixed-price supply agreements with residential customers would have to provide Next Generation Rate information for every account served under such agreements 36 times rather than twice, even though the Next Generation Rate would not change for nearly three years. Furthermore, it is unnecessary to impose such a requirement. As the Authority has recognized, the cost of providing any option must be weighed against the potential customer demand and benefit. 21 As of now, the Authority has received confirmation that one supplier has not satisfied the Next Generation Rate requirements of the RE01 Decision. 22 As of today, there are approximately 60 licensed electric suppliers. 23 There will be a cost for every one of these suppliers to modify their systems to provide the Next Generation Rate information on a monthly basis. However, there is no evidence that Authority, the OCC or the EDCs have received complaints or requests in the last two years about the Next Generation Rate that would 20 See, generally, Rate Board (https// (listing current offers for residential energy supply agreements, including fixed-price arrangements for terms as long as thirty-six (36) months) Decision, at See, generally, Docket No RE01, Application of Spark Energy, L.P. For An Electric Supplier License - Investigation Into Compliance With d(a)(2). 23 See http// ndview. 6

7 warrant such a broad based change. 24 Thus, the cost of imposing a requirement that suppliers provide the Next Generation every month far outweighs any potential benefit. 25 As UI pointed out, a one-size fits all solution may not be the best approach to fully resolve the specific complaints that have given rise to the recent activity in this proceeding. 26 Accordingly, rather than making sweeping modifications that will increase the opportunities for potential noncompliance and the cost and burden on electric suppliers, RESA encourages the Authority to, as it warned it would and has already, take immediate and decisive regulatory action against any supplier who violates the spirit and intent of Section 1 of the Act or the RE01 Decision. 27 CONCLUSION For all the foregoing reasons, the Authority should not require suppliers to provide the EDCs with Next Generation Rate information every month regardless of whether the customer s contractual price is changing. In addition, RESA supports Eversource s request for a technical meeting 28 to address this issue more fully. 24 See Eversource Response to Interrogatory OCC-5 (Feb. 23, 2018) (noting that it has received one complaint since January 2016 regarding the Next Generation Rate); UI Response to Interrogatory OCC-5 (Feb. 23, 2018) (indicating that it cannot determine if it has received any complaints specific to the Next Generation Rate). In fact, the only complaint that the EDCs identified was related to the same supplier being investigated. See Eversource Response to Interrogatory OCC-9 (Mar. 19, 2018). 25 While RESA acknowledges that the EDCs have reported that certain suppliers have not provided Summary Information, this may not be the result of non-compliance. See, e.g., re01 Decision (concluding that Summary Information need not be provided on bills issued to IRAs). 26 UI Letter, at RE01 Decision, at Eversource Letter, at 2. 7

8 Respectfully Submitted, RETAIL ENERGY SUPPLY ASSOCIATION By Joey Lee Miranda Robinson & Cole LLP 280 Trumbull Street Hartford, CT Phone (860) Fax (860)

9 CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that a copy of the foregoing was sent to all participants of record on this 20th day of April Joey Lee Miranda 9