The Senate is considering an amendment to SB3766 which would require gas utility POR programs and the availability of gas municipal aggregation. Specifically, gas utilities with transportation programs for residential and small commercial customers would be required to make POR programs available to competitive suppliers. The programs would operate with a 1% discount rate, half of which would be for the utility's "deemend intangible costs" and the other half of which would be for recovery of administrative costs of the program. The amendment would also permit municipalities to adopt ordinances for residential and small commercial gas load aggregation programs. The full text of the Amendment to SB3766 is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission has considered and adopted a series of recommendations from stakeholder workshops on plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). The workshops examined: Integrated Distribution Company (IDC) rules; customer education and outreach plans for PEV purchasers; potential reliability impacts of PEV usage; rate options for PEV users; and the legal status of public charging stations. Of particular relevance is the conclusion that the availability of real-time pricing at ComEd and Ameren and the expected offerings of time-variant rates from competitive suppliers pending the availability of smart meters sufficiently addresses the issue of PEV charging rates. The Commission also will include information for PEV owners on its Plug In Illinois website. The full text of the Report and Recommendations is available on the NEM Website.

The House Economic Matters Committee is holding a hearing today on HB1028. HB1028 would require the Maryland Public Service Commission to study and make recommendations as to whether to establish an auction for retail electric companies to provide electric service to the electric utilities’ standard service offer customers. The Commission would be required to consider the manner of conducting the auction, treatment of low income customers, the frequency and timeframe of the auctions as well as applicable procedures, and “the disposition of proceeds from auctions to benefit residential electric customers.” NEM filed in support of HB1028 and the Commission’s study of retail supply auctions to serve standard service offer consumers in Maryland. NEM noted the existence of retail supply auctions in Ohio and the benefits realized by consumers as a result. The full text of NEM's Testimony is available on the NEM Website.

A Petition has been filed by a number of competitive suppliers requesting that the Commission issue, "an Order declaring that natural gas distribution companies continue to be responsible under the Commission's Regulations and Orders to provide customer lists to natural gas suppliers in their service territories upon request and that said customer list must include the complete information required by the Commission's Orders, unless otherwise restricted by the customer." The Petition discusses recent practice by Columbia of making customer lists available at a fee, but withholding a "check digit" from the customer account, purportedly to prevent customer slamming. The Petition also discussed NFG's unwillingness to provide customer lists to suppliers premised on its interpretation of Commission orders. The Petition requests that the Commission issue an Order that, "continues to require that NGDCs regularly update their customer lists at no charge to NGSs, and that they provide those complete customer lists to NGSs at no charge." In the alternative, the Petition requests that the Commission, "issue an Prder requiring all NGDCs to update and provide the customer lists, as specified in the Final Order, pending the outcome of a process to determine what data elements should be provided to NGSs and how often the lists must be refreshed, and what if any fees are to be charged for providing such lists for the indefinite future." The full text of the Petition is available on the NEM Website.