HB1080 pertaining to residential electric contracts was recently introduced in the legislature. The House Economic Matters Committee will consider the bill in a hearing on March 9th. The bill would add language to the Public Utilities law as follows:

"(F) (1) IN THIS SUBSECTION, “RESIDENTIAL SUPPLY CONTRACT” MEANS AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN AN ELECTRICITY SUPPLIER AND A RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMER TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY OR ELECTRICITY SUPPLY SERVICES.
(2) A RESIDENTIAL SUPPLY CONTRACT MAY NOT CONTAIN AN AUTOMATIC RENEWAL CLAUSE UNLESS THE CUSTOMER:
(I) WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO REJECT THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL PROVISION BEFORE ENTERING INTO THE CONTRACT; AND
(II) MAY CANCEL THE RENEWAL OF THE CONTRACT AT ANY TIME UP TO 30 DAYS BEFORE THE DAY WHEN THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE EFFECT.
(3) IF A RESIDENTIAL SUPPLY CONTRACT REQUIRES THE CUSTOMER TO PAY AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR PENALTY ON CANCELLATION OF THE CONTRACT, THE TERMINATION FEE OR PENALTY SHALL DECREASE BY AN EQUAL AMOUNT EACH MONTH SO THAT THE CUSTOMER OWES 23 NO TERMINATION FEE OR PENALTY AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT.
(4) AN ELECTRICITY SUPPLIER MAY NOT REFUSE TO PROVIDE SERVICE TO A PERSON BECAUSE THE PERSON PREVIOUSLY CANCELED A RESIDENTIAL SUPPLY CONTRACT."

The full text of HB1080 is available on the NEM Website.

OPC filed a petition with the Commission with respect to its previous Order on the electric utilities presentation of Price to Compare information. Specifically, OPC requested: "1) clarification of the Commission’s earlier order in this matter, 2) an order directing the investor-owned utilities to correct erroneous standard offer service (“SOS”)pricing information on bills and websites, and 3)expedited review of this petition." In its Petition, OPC argued that notwithstanding the PTC Order, "some of the utilities’ bills are still not providing updated and accurate information on SOS prices. Further, information on some of the utility websites is also not accurate and does not clearly relay SOS pricing information to customers." OPC offered a proposed timeline for the utilities to update their webpostings and bill presentation of PTC information.

The procedural schedule for review of OPC's petition is as follows:
March 7, 2011 - utilities responses to OPC petition and parties comments on OPC petition;
March 21, 2011 - reply comments;
March 29, 2011 - hearing.

The full texts of the Petition and Notice of Procedural Schedule are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission issued a Proposed Rulemaking Order on marketing and sales practices for the retail residential energy market. The proposed rules are based on Interim Guidelines adopted by the Commission last fall and are proposed to be applicable to both electric and gas suppliers. Some areas in which the proposed rules differ from the Interim Guidelines are as follows:

1) the proposed rules include a definitions section, amongst which is a definition of "agent." "Agent" is defined as, "A person who conducts marketing or sales activities, or both, on behalf of a single licensed supplier. The term includes an employee, a representative, an independent contractor, or a vendor. For natural gas suppliers, the term 'agent' also includes 'marketing services consultant' or 'nontraditional marketer.'" The Commission proposes that agents that provide marketing and/or sales support services to more than one supplier are to be included in the definition of "agent" and required to follow the regulations.
2) The agent training requirement in the Interim Guidelines is proposed to be expanded to include a supplier's obligation to ensure that its vendors and independent contractors have provided the same training to their employees, agents or independent contractors.
3) Agent compensation by a supplier shall be designed so as not to promote or encourage behavior that is contrary to the regulations.
4) The transaction verification process requirement does not apply to transactions completed by the customer without the involvement of the agent.
5) Suppliers must provide general information to the utility in advance of its sales or marketing efforts that may generate customer inquiries to the utility. The utility may only use the information to inform its CSRs to allow to respond to customer inquiries.

Comments on the Proposed Rulemaking Order are due 60 days after its publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The full text of the Proposed Rulemaking Order is available on the NEM Website.

A series of Secretarial Letters were issued from the Commissiont this week to clarify certain outstanding retail market issues.

First, it was clarified that electric suppliers are exempt from the budget billing requirement when they provide dynamically-priced products to residential customers. "Dynamically-priced products" were defined as, "those offerings that fluctuate in price, at a maximum by month, based on wholesale electric market trends and/or offer differing rates and rebates based on peak/off-peak usage periods. Examples of some dynamically-priced product offerings include monthly, daily, time-of-use, real-time, critical-peak, and peak-time rebate pricing." The full text of the Secretarial Letter is available on the NEM Website.

Additionally, the Commission issued a Secretarial Letter, "urg[ing] all licensed electric generation suppliers and electric distribution companies (EDCs) to be diligent in updating their pricing information on the recently developed electric shopping website, www.PAPowerSwitch.com." The Commission also cautioned that, "EGSs are reminded that they are obligated to provide accurate pricing information in all marketing materials pursuant to 52 Pa. Code 54.7. A failure to keep prices current on the PAPowerSwitch website could lead to the loss of an EGS’s privilege to be listed." The full text of the Secretarial Letter is available on the NEM Website.

Because of a pending appeal of its Order on eligible customer lists, the Commission issued a Secretarial Letter clarifying that, "The effect of the stay or supersedeas is to return the release of customer information protocols to the methods and restrictions in effect before the Guidelines Order was issued. This means that customers will have the right to tell the EDC to restrict the release of all of their customer information. This “no disclosure” option will remain in effect pending resolution of the pending appeal. As such, all customers affected by the Guidelines Order shall be permitted to restrict the release of all customer information without being required to state a reason for so doing." The full text of the Secretarial Letter is available on the NEM Website.