Chairman Burns filed a letter in the retail electric competition docket to "request that Staff put together a rules package for full retail electric competition for all customers. This rules package should be docketed by January 10, 2020; in time to be discussed (not voted) no later than the Commission's February 2020 Open Meeting." Chairman Burns requested that the other Commissioners respond to the proposal by August 30th, to be included for discussion at a future Staff Open Meeting. If no Commissioner responses are received, Staff is to proceed with Chairman Burns request.

Chairman Burns acknowledged that there are many questions deserving study related to retail electric competition, including RTO membership; consumer protection rules; transition to full retail electric competition; utility divestiture of generation assets; meeting renewable energy standards; and legal issues. Chairman Burns maintains that a "proposed rule package should be presented prior to all the questions being addressed completely. . . [because] without a full rules package before us, I believe that we will just continue to ask questions that will have no meaningful answers because we have no rules which to gauge those answers against."

The full text of Chairman Burns' Letter is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission approved a supplier consolidated billing (SCB) implementation timeline addressing the development and adoption of regulations; EDI standards; tariff filings; billing system programming and testing; customer education; and utility/supplier certification testing. The first milestone in the approved timeline is the drafting and preparation of regulations to commence in September. Staff has scheduled a teleconference on August 23rd at 1pm to discuss issues related to working group startup in September, strawman documents, and scheduling meetings and tasks. If necessary, a follow-up second teleconference call will be held on August 27th at 1pm.

The full texts of the Order Approving SCB Implementation Timeline and Proposed SCB Implementation Timeline are available on the NEM Website.

The Hearing Officer issued a memorandum outlining next steps in the customer protection stakeholder working group. Regarding competitive supplier reports on automatic renewal and contract pricing, "the Department requests that suppliers submit their populated tables no later than September 13, 2019." Suppliers may request to protect this information from public disclosure.

The Department requested that supplier proposals related to automatic renewal notices, telemarketing and door-to-door marketing scripts, and contract summary forms be revised based on Staff's alternative proposal and discussions at the last workgroup meeting. The revised proposals should also address customers for whom English is not their primary language and compliance with state law requirements on telemarketing. Revised proposals are due September 20, 2019.

The consumer advocates had proposed that supplier licensing and renewal proceedings be publicly docketed and include information on vendor contractors, marketing materials, training materials, compliance policy and notice of lawsuits and investigations. In response, the Department said it "seeks to work with the consumer advocate group to refine its proposal related to (1) the information that the Department might post on our website related to license applications (to improve the transparency of the licensing process), (2) additional information the Department might require as part of our licensing process (to improve the effectiveness of the process), and (3) ongoing reporting requirements."

The consumer advocates had suggested that the current Notice of Door-to-Door Marketing be changed to include three (up from one) contacts for a third party door-to-door vendor; copy of municipal permit/license for the door-to-door campaign; and zip code where campaign will be conducted. Also, the Notice should be sent to the Attorney General's office and notice should be sent at least two business days before commencement of the campaign. In response, the Department said it will "work with the consumer advocate group to identify ways in which we can improve the usefulness of our existing door-to-door marketing notices."

The Department requested comment on the consumer advocate group's proposals related to recording of marketing interactions, third party verification calls, auditing requirements, and retention of complaint information. Comments are due September 20, 2019. In this regard, the consumer advocates had proposed:
a) in-person (door-to-door) and telemarketing interactions be recorded, upon receiving consumer consent, and recordings be retained for five years.
b) the Department promulgate regulations to ensure the independence of third party verification calls. They propose "independent third party" be defined as "1) a vendor whose compensation is not tied in any way to the success, or lack thereof, of customer enrollments or retentions, and 2) a vendor who is not affiliated with the supplier or any third-party marketer who markets, or has marketed, on behalf of the supplier. It is proposed that supplier contracts with third party vendors be filed with the Department.
c) suppliers regularly audit recordings of telephonic and door-to-door marketing conducted by third-party marketers and also audit a sample of completed contracts.
d) suppliers retain documentation related to customer complaints and inquiries for at least five years, and an annual log of customer complaints and inquiries should be provided to the Department and Attorney General.

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

SB547 enacted earlier this year changed the Commission's standard for reviewing and approving customer applications to depart electric utility commodity service; revised the application procedure for a customer to seek Commission approval to shop with a competitive electric supplier; required "providers of new electric resources" to obtain a license by the Commission; and required the Commission to establish a process for a shopping customer to apply to return to bundled electric utility service. SB547 also revised the requirements for utility filings of integrated resource plans. Such plans must now include:

"a proposal for annual limits on the total amount of energy and capacity that eligible customers may be authorized to purchase from providers of new electric resources through transactions approved by the Commission pursuant to an application submitted pursuant to NRS 704B.310 on or after May 16, 2019. In developing the proposal and the forecasts in the plan, the utility or utilities must use a sensitivity analysis that, at a minimum, addresses load growth, import capacity, system constraints and the effect of eligible customers purchasing less energy and capacity than authorized by the proposed annual limit.

The proposal in the plan must include, without limitation:
(a) A forecast of the load growth of the utility or utilities;
(b) The number of eligible customers that are currently being served by or anticipated to be served by the utility or utilities;
(c) Information concerning the infrastructure of the utility or utilities that is available to accommodate market-based new electric resources;
(d) Proposals to ensure the stability of rates and the availability and reliability of electric service; and
(e) For each year of the plan, impact fees applicable to each megawatt or each megawatt hour to account for costs reflected in the base tariff general rate and base tariff energy rate paid by end use customers of the electric utility."

The Commission opened a rulemaking to implement SB547. The rulemaking will be conducted in three phases: 1) integrated resource planning issues; 2) licensing of providers of new electric service; and 3) the revised exit application process. Staff will prepare a straw proposal on integrated resource planning issues, including regulations on impact fees, by August 30, 2019. Suppliers will file proposed regulations on licensing of providers of new electric service by September 6, 2019. A workshop will be convened to consider the proposals on November 21, 2019. The full texts of SB547 and the Procedural Order on Rulemaking are available on the NEM Website.

Relatedly, the Commission also opened an investigation and rulemaking to consider amendments to regulations related to alternative sellers of discretionary natural gas service. The rulemaking was prompted by the Commission's recent receipt of natural gas supplier applications. The Commission has requested comments on revisions to existing regulations "to bring the existing regulations up to date with existing practices and realities of alternative sellers of discretionary natural gas service; and explore whether the disparities in notification deadlines/timeframes that transportation customers must submit in order to recommence sales service within the local distribution company are still warranted; and whether an opportunity to elect sales service from the local distribution company should be available more than once a year." Comments are due October 16, 2019. A workshop will be held on November 5, 2019. The full text of the Notice of Rulemaking and Request for Comments is available on the NEM Website.

A Secretarial Letter was sent to electric generation suppliers (EGSs) and electric utilities to provide notice that there will be a recalculation of the annual Alternate Energy Portfolio Standards Act (AEPS Act) Tier I obligations for the 2019 AEPS Act compliance year. The recalculation is needed because of a utility's reporting error of retail load for the 2019 compliance year. The AEPS Administrator will provide revised obligations to each EGS and electric utility by August 15, 2019. The Commission is also extending the AEPS Act annual true-up compliance deadline to October 1, 2019. The full text of the Secretarial Letter is available on the NEM Website.