Commission Chairman Quackenbush and Michigan Energy Office Director Bakkal will host seven public forums on Michigan's energy future. The second forum will take place February 25th in Grand Rapids. Through these forums and written comments received, Governor Snyder will develop his recommendations regarding Michigan's energy future in December of 2013. A series of questions on the topics of electric choice, renewable energy, energy efficiency and additional areas have been posted for comment on http://www.michigan.gov/energy.

At the Commission's agenda meeting yesterday, it approved a final order in its retail market investigation on the end state of electric default service. As it had previously proposed, the Commission decided to retain the utility in the default service provider role for the time being. However, it also ordered that a working group be formed for the purpose of identifying issues related to alternative entity(ies) provision of default service.

The fundamental method relied upon by the Commission to facilitate competition is by moving the utility default service rate to one that more closely resembles market conditions. The Commission believes certain legislative changes may be necessary to completely effectuate its recommendations but committed to their implementation by 2015.

For utility default service beginning on June 1, 2015, utilities are to only offer hourly LMP to medium and large C&I customers with interval meters. The product will be procured at auction on a quarterly basis. The utilities are to offer a quarterly PTC for residential and small commercial customers, subject to the Commission's concern about potential legislative action required for a ninety-day default service rate. Should that be a problem, an alternative shorter-term product that is more reflective of market conditions than the current default service rates should be utilized. A collaborative quarterly auction shall be utilized by the utilities. A procurement collaboration working group is to be formed to develop a uniform yearly certification process, uniform supply master agreement and procurement methodology and timeline for the utilities' quarterly default service auctions.

The Commission's proposal to allow CAP customers to participate in energy choice has been largely rendered moot now that nearly all of the utilities permit it, and PECO is in the process of permitting it.

The Commission declined to require further activities related to supplier consolidated billing at this time, finding that it would require significant time and stakeholder resources that should for now be directed to other priorities. In the alternative, the Commission found it would be helpful to make the current utility consolidated bill more supplier-oriented. Staff is to explore options for including more supplier information, placement of supplier information, and possible inclusion of supplier bill inserts.

The Commission will initiate rulemaking proceedings to adopt regulations to facilitate seamless moves and "instant connects" (day one switching). The Commission found that in the meantime current law and regulations do not prevent the utilities from submitting plans by the end of 2013 for implementation of seamless moves and instant connects.

A statewide consumer education campaign targeted at residential and small business consumers will be undertaken. The $2 million campaign is to be funded by those utilities that have competitive offerings in their service territories. The Commission's Office of Communications is to reach out to supplier stakeholders, including NEM, to secure partnerships and commitments to the campaign and participate in campaign activities. The Commission noted that it, "strongly encourages, and fully expects, those EGSs who are active in Pennsylvania to make significant contributions of funding and other resources to this campaign, which will be a part of the maximum $2 million total for the campaign and will help to offset the costs to the EDCs and their customers."

The Commission plans to initiate a rulemaking to permit it to establish an annual licensing fee that would be applicable to suppliers and brokers. The Commission stated the fee would be a flat annual fee of $1,000.

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