The Board issued an Order adopting in part and modifying in part a Staff UCB/POR proposal to revise existing utility programs. The Board generally agreed with the revisions suggested by Staff, subject to certain changes. The new UCB/POR programs are to be constructed as follows:

1) All customers that are enrolled in UCB shall also be enrolled in POR. Te utilities shall offer UCB/POR to all residential and small to mid-sized commercial customers, subject to arrearage restrictions discussed below. If a utility presently offers UCB/POR to large C&I customers, it shall continue to do so.

2) The utilities may no longer restrict customers from UCB/POR if they have been dropped to dual billing within the past 12 months, if the customer has been making payements toward bringing the account to not more than 60 days in arrears.

3) TPSs shall receive payments under the UCB/POR programs as follows: JCP&L, ACE and PSEG - five days after due date on customer bill; NJNG - twice monthly; SJG - 5 days after the end of the calendar month; RECO - the 25th of each month; and ETG - twice monthly.

4) The number of days before an electric customer's account must be in arrears before being dropped to dual billing will be increased from 60 to 120 days.

5) Utilities shall provide TPSs with monthly customer arrearage reports unless they are currently providing them on a more frequent basis.

6) Utilities shall not create or increase discount rates or fees as a result of implementing the POR program changes. Any such rate or fee changes should be made within a rate case proceeding.

7) UCB/POR program changes must be implemented in accordance with the following dates: ACE, PSEG, RECO, JCP&L, NJNG - within 120 days of the Order; ETG - by November 1, 2013; and SJG - by March 1, 2014.

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

The Commission has determined, based on all of the comments received in its Retail Market Investigation, that stakeholder workshops should be convened, "to promote coordinated efforts to further develop Ohio's retail electric service market. The workshops will be facilitated by Commission Staff and should be used to identify and overcome market constraints, existing issues impacting the relationship between competitive retail electric service providers and electric distribution utilities, existing issues regarding market access, and any other issues that can be overcome to further develop Ohio's retail electric service market. These workshops will be solution driven; stakeholders attending the workshops are strongly encouraged to recommend changes that can be immediately implemented by competitive retail electric service providers and electric distribution utilities, as well as changes that can be adopted by the Commission. The workshops should also be used for the development of a short term market development work plan."

The stakeholder workshops will be held on the following dates:
(a) June 25,2013;
(b) July 30,2013;
(c) September 5,2013;
(d) October 10,2013;
(e) November 7,2013;
(f) December 12,2013.

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