New laws P.A. 99-0103 and 99-0107 recently became effective. These laws limit early termination fees for retail electric service to $50 for residential customers and $150 for small commercial customers. Specifically, "any tariff or contract renewed or entered into on and after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly that contains an early termination fee shall disclose the amount of the early termination fee, provided that any early termination fee or penalty shall not exceed $50 total for residential customers and $150 for small commercial retail customers as defined in Section 16-102 of this Act, regardless of whether or not the tariff or contract is a multiyear tariff or contract." However, the law distinguishes that, "[t]he caps shall not apply to charges or fees for devices, equipment, or other services provided by the utility or alternative retail electric supplier." The full texts of P.A. 99-0103 and 99-0107 are available on the NEM Website.

The Department is requesting comment on the definition of “eligible customers” for the purpose of a utility's compilation of a customer list for a municipal aggregator. National Grid's current practice when providing a customer list to a municipal aggregator is to exclude 1) customers enrolled with another competitive supplier; 2) customers enrolled in the GreenUp program; and 3) customers who previously told National Grid that they do not want their personal account information shared with competitive suppliers. The Department is requesting comment on whether customer lists provided to municipal aggregations should include all basic service customers, except customers enrolled in optional basic service enhancement programs, i.e., National Grid's GreenUp program. Comments are due August 27, 2015. The full text of the Request for Comments is available on the NEM Website.

The Staff-led collaborative on accelerated switching issues filed a report with recommendations with the Commission. With respect to customer switching of gas suppliers, the report recommends that the current on-cycle gas switching timeline of fifteen days be shortened to ten days. It is recommended that this change be implemented with a March 1, 2016, effective date. To achieve further reductions in the gas switching timeline, it is suggested that parties contact NAESB regarding the automation of the process of entering capacity releases into pipeline databases. The report also recommends that off-cycle switching not be implemented at this time, premised mainly on the lack of AMI infrastructure in the state. The collaborative will reconvene six months after the changes go into effect to review their effectiveness and determine if changes are necessary. Comments on the Report are due September 28, 2015. The full text of the Report and Request for Comments is available on the NEM Website.