NEM filed comments on the Commission's implementation of the ESCO Consumer Bill of Rights law. Proposed Uniform Business Practices (UBP) changes and a proposed Consumer Bill of Rights (BOR) were issued for comment. NEM offered certain language clarifications to the proposed UBP language and BOR as well as introduced NEM's own Consumer Bill of Rights. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

A meeting of the New York State Energy Planning Board will take place on November 23, 2010, at 3PM at NYSERDA in Albany. The meeting is being held to consider draft Board bylaws; to establish a working group drawn from designated state agencies; and to direct the working group to begin the process of promulgating implementing regulations and a scoping document of issues to be addressed in the State Energy Plan. The full text of the Notice and Agenda is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission adopted Interim Guidelines on Marketing Standards applicable to electric and natural gas suppliers sales to residential consumers. The Guidelines were vetted through the Staff stakeholder process so there were limited controversial areas for the Commission to decide. These issues included:
1) door-to-door sales verification must take place after the agent has physically left the customer's residence;
2) door-to-door marketing hours shall be 9AM to 8PM from April 1 to September 30 and from 9AM to 7PM from October 1 to March 31; and
3) marketers should, not shall, provide notice to the utility of their marketing and sales activities.

The Commission stated it would not consider further restriction of suppliers' marketing and sales practices (i.e. door-to-door) until after the Interim Guidelines have been in place. In his dissent, Vice Chairman Christy stated his opinion that door-to-door energy marketing should not be permitted.

The Commission extended the due date for Staff to prepare a proposed rulemaking based on the Interim Guidelines to February 1, 2011. A Staff report on suppliers use of independent contractors is due April 30, 2011.

The full texts of the Interim Guidelines and Vice Chair Christy's Dissent are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission issued an Order approving Interim Guidelines for Eligible Customer Lists (ECLs) provided by the electric utilities.

The Commission found as follows:
1) victims of domestic violence can restrict release of all of their customer information by the utility;
2) the utilities should update their ECL on a monthly basis;
3) customer telephone numbers should be included on the ECL, except when the customer restricts its disclosure in accordance with 52 Pa. Code § 54.8. Suppliers must also adhere to the do not call list restrictions; and
4) in addition to other agreed upon ECL fields, the utilities should include a POLR indicator, interval meter indicator, and current and future Capacity and Transmission Obligations.

The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.

West Penn Power filed proposed revisions to its Electric Generation Supplier Coordination Tariff. The revised tariff includes provisions for supplier registration and credit requirements; a utility ombudsman; provision for release of customer information to suppliers; and reduction of the settlement process from 90 to 60 days. The revised tariff includes provision for a new POR program for suppliers using utility consolidated billing at a 0% discount rate. West Penn Power is also adding a new tariff rider for: 1) a $53/hour technical support and assistance charge for supplier questions and research requests; 2) a $53/hour load data supply charge for provision of load data when requested in a calendar year for which it has already been provided once at no charge; and 3) a $6/bill/month consolidated billing charge for the utility to recover its POR programming costs. The full text of the Proposed Supplier Coordination Tariff is available on the NEM Website.