The Maryland Public Service Commission will host a supplier orientation on Thursday, September 29, 2016, beginning at 9AM. The orientation will be held at BGE offices at 110 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, Maryland in the 1st floor conference room.

Topics of the orientation will include:

* Maryland's Consumer Protection Regulations;
* Online Resources for Competitive Suppliers and Brokers; and
* Utility resources and updates from representatives of the companies.

Additional information will be forthcoming.

Commission Staff will convene an informational webcast session regarding the Commission's recently adopted Clean Energy Standard (CES). The webcast will focus on the obligations of load serving entities under the CES and NYSERDA's role as the administrator of the central procurement process for RECs. It will include discussion of key elements of the CES, development of implementation proposals and an opportunity for questions. Those wishing to participate must reply to CES@dps.ny.gov by September 8, 2016. Written questions may be submitted by September 9, 2016. The full texts of the Order Adopting Clean Energy Standard and Notice of Informational Session are available on the NEM Website.

The EDI workgroup, including representatives from the utilities, ESCOs, EDI providers, and Staff, is examining technical implementation issues associated with the Low Income Moratorium Order. In last week's meeting, the EDI workgroup took up the technical implementation questions raised by NEM in its Petition for Rehearing and Clarification of the Order. The questions posed by NEM were as follows:

a) NEM members are not aware of any existing EDI transaction that will allow the utilities to transmit the switch block information to ESCOs along with the requirement that the customers have to be returned to the utility.
b) The “blind” communication of the block information by the utilities to ESCOs is likely to lead to difficulties. For instance, account numbers may not match. In addition, a customer may mistakenly be included in the block, and ESCOs will have no means to verify the accuracy of the customers included in the block.
c) The Order does not address how current ESCO APP customers (as identified by the utilities in accordance with the Order) that are currently under a fixed term contract and that subsequently do not participate in the APP program while still on a fixed term contract will be permitted to shop, with the block removed from their account.
d) When an enrollment is rejected, the reason for the rejection will not be known by the ESCO. If there was a mistake in the enrollment information that is unrelated to a customer’s low income status, the ESCO will not have any means to identify the correctable error and will not be able to remedy the situation.

For the initial implementation of the Order, the utilities are planning to make their initial list of ineligible customers available to suppliers through a non-EDI method (varies by utility). Additional details of the utilities' plans for technical implementation are available in the Minutes to the EDI workgroup available on the Commission's website at this hotlink.