The Commission is requesting comments and will hold a hearing in the proceeding to investigate sales and marketing practices of electric suppliers and aggregators. The Department intends to adopt a code of conduct as a result of the case pertaining to: a) sales and marketing practices; b) authorized business relationships between suppliers and aggregators; c) interactions between suppliers and electric utilities; and d) suppliers' compliance with Department requirements. The hearing will take place on September 22, 2010, at 10:30AM.

The Department is requesting comment on the following:
1) its proposed marketing and sales practice guidelines;
2) Department precedent finding that aggregators act on behalf of customers, not suppliers, and suppliers cannot use aggregators to represent themselves;
3) appropriate guidelines to govern supplier offering postings to the Department's Rate Board;
4) whether the referral program should be discontinued or modified;
5) issues or concerns associated with the "Information for Electric Suppliers and Aggregators" category on the Department website.

Comments are due September 20, 2010. The full texts of the Notice of Request for Written Comments and Notice of Hearing are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission will convene a retail gas market conference on October 20, 2010, at 1:30PM. The purpose of the conference is to discuss the gas utilities preparations to meet gas market demand and winter 2010-11 market conditions. The utilities are also asked to detail the costs of summer hedges for storage injection, other summer injection costs, and the cost of winter 2009-10 hedges. "To the extent competitive conditions allow, the Commission further welcomes information from suppliers." The full text of the Notice of Retail Gas Market Conference is available on the NEM Website.

Staff, the electric utilities and the Maryland Energy Administration are requesting proposals on energy efficiency programs that could be potentially be incorporated into utility plans to be filed by September 1, 2011, for implementation in 2012-14. Plans will also include projected costs and impacts through 2015. The utility filings are required per the EmPOWER Maryland Energy Efficiency Act of 2008. A proposal template should be used for the submission of program elements. Templates are due by October 4, 2010. EmPOWER Work Group meetings to review the proposals will commence on October 25, 2010. The full text of the Invitation for EmPower Program Proposals is available on the NEM Website.

NEM submitted comments on the Commission's ANOPR on the gas PTC, POR and capacity release. NEM supported the proposal that the PTC be comprised of: the gas cost rate determined in the NGDC's Section 1307(f) proceeding; the reconciliation for over and under collections; the NGDC's natural gas procurement costs (determined via a Section 1308(a) tariff filing); and the Merchant Function Charge (determined via a Section 1308(a) tariff filing). NEM suggested that a collaborative be undertaken to examine the e-factor and whether it would be appropriate to adjust it more frequently, as well as an examination of the assessment of the e-factor to migrated customers. NEM supported the proposed POR program constructs although reiterated its position that suppliers should be given the presently available flexibility with respect to whether or not they use utility consolidated billing. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.