As part of the resolution of Nicor's gas rate case, the Commission approved a settlement of small volume choice program issues. The Order approved the following: "1) Customer Select customers shall receive a credit for gas in storage as part of the Transportation Service Credit; 2) Nicor will calculate Supplier‘s end-of-month Storage Inventory Target Levels during the winter as a percentage of month-end storage capacity, as opposed to a percentage of the preceding November 1 inventory; 3) that Customer Select Suppliers shall be allowed to cycle annually the additional operational balancing storage capacity of 6 times the Group‘s MDCQ effective as of the first May following the effective date of the tariff, and, also, permit the combined storage capacity of 34 times the Group‘s MDCQ as the basis for calculating monthly storage inventory target levels and the daily storage injection capacity; 4) to include the Account Charge in the base rates of all eligible customers; 5) to eliminate the $10.00 Group Addition fee as it relates to switching from one supplier to another and recover these costs through base rates; 6) to extend the number of days that a customer has to select a new Customer Select Supplier after returning to Nicor from another Customer Select Supplier from 45 to 120 days; 7) to make available to Customer Select Suppliers a residential customer mailing list; and, 8) to continue to meet with interested Customer Select stakeholders." The full text of the Nicor Order is available on the NEM Website.

On a related note, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas have filed new rate cases. The full text of Peoples Gas Rate Filing is available at:
http://www.peoplesgasdelivery.com/news/rate_case.aspx
The full text of the North Shore Gas Rate Filing is available at:
http://www.northshoregasdelivery.com/news/rate_case.aspx

O&R was directed in its last electric rate case to evaluate the feasibility of expanding its ESCO referral program to include new service customers. O&R filed a report detailing how this could be accommodated, including changing enrollment transactions that would require changes in its Customer Information Management System and Retail Access Information System. For electric customers under the proposed program expansion, "the enrollment becomes effective immediately upon service activation, without any notice to the customer or opportunity to rescind." "For gas service activations, the process will have to be revised somewhat in order to allow for the release of capacity and appropriate scheduling of gas deliveries by ESCOs. All ESCO gas service must commence on the first of the month. However, the Company can accommodate a process that would allow a new customer to elect PowerSwitch for its gas service so long as that election was made at least 15 days prior to the first of the month (and no more than 25 days prior to the first of the month) and the PowerSwitch enrollment does not become effective until the first of the month. In these circumstances, if service was activated prior to the first of the month, the customer would begin service taking O&R's gas commodity service and would become an ESCO customer on PowerSwitch on the first of the following month." O&R estimated first year implementation costs for the program expansion to be approximately $46,000 and on-going maintenance costs to be $4,100 annually. O&R proposed that marketers participating in PowerSwitch fund the costs.

The Commission has requested comments on O&R's report. Comments are due May 11, 2009. The full text of O&R's Report is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission issued a proposed rulemaking intended to foster the development of the retail natural gas market and to aid consumers in comparison of marketer and gas utility pricing. Specifically, the proposed rules would:
1) reformulate the utility “price to compare”;
2) establish permanent rules for utility voluntary POR programs;
3) provide guidance on non-discriminatory capacity release, assignment and transfer; and
4) change how recoverable costs related to competition activities and regulatory assessments are handled.

Additionally, Vice Chairman Christy issued a statement on the proposed rules voicing a number of concerns including: 1) the advisability of moving from quarterly to monthly gas price adjustments; 2) whether moving embedded gas procurement costs from base rates to the PTC would result in utility stranded costs; 3) whether the Commission should develop a monthly projection of natural gas prices for the ensuing twelve months to improve information available to consumers; and 4) consumers lack of knowledge of effective migration riders. Christy requested comment on these issues as well.

Comments on the Proposed Rulemaking are due 45 days after publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.