As previously required by the Commission, BGE and Delmarva have filed changes to the their electric supplier coordination tariffs to include a POR program discount rate to be charged to participating suppliers. In BGE's filing it does not show the actual discount rate but rather how the rate will be calculated. The BGE discount rate will include the following components: 1) an uncollectible expense component to be derived by "dividing the estimated Electric Supplier uncollectible expenses associated with each rate schedule by the electricity revenues billed for all Electricity Suppliers for the applicable rate schedules"; 2) a program development cost component to be derived by "dividing the estimated programming, testing and other information technology costs directly associated with COMAR 20.53 by the estimated electricity revenues billed for all Electricity Suppliers"; 3) an operation cost component to be derived by "dividing the estimated Electricity Supplier credit and collection expenses and other operational costs directly associated with COMAR 20.53 by the estimated electricity revenues billed for all Electricity Suppliers"; and 4) a risk component to remain fixed at 1.25%. The discount rate would be subject to reconciliation, and if BGE has unrecovered implementation costs, it proposes to impose a charge on suppliers to recover them.

Delmarva's filing includes different discount rates for different customer classes. Specifically, Delmarva proposes to apply a 1.71% discount rate for customers on Schedule R, R-TOU-ND, and OL; a 0.98% discount rate for customers on Schedule SGS, TN, and ORL; and a 0.75% discount rate for customers on Schedule LGS-S, GS-P, and GS-T. This includes a risk adder of 0.22% for the "risk associated with the continuation of the supplier-customer relationship." Delmarva proposes to be able to assess suppliers for program costs and uncollected receivables if there is an insufficient amount of suppliers using consolidated billing.

The full texts of the BGE and Delmarva Filings are available on the NEM Website.

The Board is requesting comments on the electric utilities' proposal to phase-out the retail margin currently applicable to BGE-FP and BGS-CIEP customers with peak usage of over 750kw. The Board requests comments on the following issues:

1) whether the retail margin still accurately reflects within BGS pricing the retailing costs incurred by third party suppliers;
2) if a reduction in the retail margin is approved, what would be the appropriate amount to reflect third party suppliers retailing costs; and
3) if a reduction in the retail margin is approved, what is appropriate timing for a phase-out.

Comments are due November 20, 2009. The issue is expected to considered at the Board's December 1, 2009, Agenda meeting. The full text of the Request for Comments is available on the NEM Website.

ConEd filed a new gas rate case with the Commission by which it proposes to establish rates for the three year period running from October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2013. ConEd would increase delivery rates during the period by 6% annually on a total bill basis based on increased of $115.5 million each year. ConEd would set its billing and payment processing charge at $1.04 per bill, the same as it proposed in its electric rate case. It also proposes to continue its gas revenue decoupling mechanism.

ConEd would modify its balancing service to eliminate the current Daily Delivery Service and Daily Cashout Service. Under the remaining Load Following Service, both transportation and sales customers will pay a Load Following Charge through their Monthly Rate Adjustment.

The full text of the ConEd Filing Letter is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission issued a proposed rulemaking for comment pertaining to the gas utilities adoption of standard supplier coordination tariffs (SCTs), standard business practices and communication standards. Amongst the proposed standards for consideration are imbalance trading, tolerance bands, cash out and penalties, nominations and capacity. The rulemaking is premised on the gas SEARCH Report and Order. The proposed rulemaking would allow the gas utilities cost recovery for reasonable, prudently incurred implementation costs. Comments on the proposed rulemaking are due December 1, 2009.

Concurrently with the rulemaking, the Commission will convene a stakeholder process to develop a standard SCT and to make recommendations for standard business practices. The stakeholder process will begin with the release of straw proposal for comment. The full text of the Proposed Rulemaking is available on the NEM Website.