The Staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission will hold an informal workshop process to create a draft rule for the interconnection of distributed generation. Initial documents generated in this proceeding include a proposed draft rule governing distributed generation interconnections, a draft interconnection agreement and two interconnection applications. One is a Short Form Application for Single Phase Attachment of Parallel Generation Equipment 20 kV or Smaller and the other is a Standard Application for Attachment of Parallel Generation Equipmentfor single phase equipment larger than 20 kV or for three-phase equipment of any size.

Staff is soliciting comments on any and all aspects of these documents and any other issues related to distributed generation interconnection in Illinois. Comments are due January 30, 2004. The full text of the Notice of Workshop is available on the NEM Website.

The MPSC Has accepted NEM's recommendation and decided to re-examine Consumer's securitization case. A prehearing conference has been scheduled for January 13, 2004. In the June 2 Order, the Commission determined that all customers, including retail open access (ROA) customers, should pay for the portion of the total securitized costs represented by implementation costs, but that only full service customers should bear responsibility for the Clean Air Act costs. Consumers proposed that the Commission either: (1) amend the Order to provide for a uniform charge applicable to all customers (including ROA), or (2) implement a plan that as customers switch to ROA, the ROA securitization and tax charges would be recalculated and increased to produce the same amount of revenue as would have been produced had the customer not switched to ROA. The Commission held that it would focus on whether the entire securitization charge should be paid by both tariff and retail open access customers and whether ROA customers would be "double-charged" for Clean Air Act compliance costs. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.

The NJBPU expanded the Commercial & Industrial Energy Price (CIEP) class for the next Basic Generation Service (BGS) auction on June 1, 2004. The new cutoff for mandatory inclusion in the CIEP will include those customers that have a peak load share of 1500 kw. This expands the CIEP class by approximately 128 accounts, which is a 7.2% increase. CIEP customers that remain on BGS are priced on an hourly basis. The Board also directed the utilities to provide new and existing CIEP customers that remain on BGS with the opportunity to release their contact information and to make these customers aware of the list of Third Party Suppliers. The Board will consider further expansion of the CIEP class for future procurement periods. The full text of the NJBPU Order is available on the NEM Website.

A November 12, 2003, Notice of Agency Action stated that the Commission was considering whether to require NFG to purchase the accounts receivable of ESCOs as suggested in NEM's Petition for Rehearing. NFG submitted comments alleging that the NYPSC could not order it to purchase receivables because it had not originally issued a SAPA notice and that the Commission's late SAPA notice (November 12, 2003) did not correct this problem.

NEM submitted comments that the Commission possesses the requisite authority and has taken the proper regulatory steps to include the purchase of ESCO receivables in NFG's just and reasonable rates. NEM also submitted that NFG was on notice that the Commission would be considering this action. NEM argued that the recent HEFPA Order supports the purchase of receivables in this case. Additionally, purchase of receivables will advance the Commission's goals set forth in its Gas Policy Statement. The full text of NEM's Comments are available on the NEM Website.

NEM submitted comments on the format and content of gas and electric bills. NEM submitted that it is important that consumers understand the full costs associated with the various elements of their bill so that a price competitive market for these services, information and technologies can emerge. NEM submitted various clarifications and suggested language to make the bill easier for consumers to understand. Specifically, NEM suggested that the sample bill should be designed to provide unbundled rates for gas metering so that when the Commission renders a decision and permits competitive gas metering, consumers will be provided with a bill that permits them to compare and shop. NEM also suggested that the NYPSC should highlight the "price to beat" on the bill so customers can see the price differentials if they were to switch to a competitive supplier. Additionally, NEM said that it is important that consumers understand that the utility commodity "price to beat" is not necessarily reflective of current market conditions. The full text of NEM's Comments are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission held that the utilities should file revised tariffs incorporating the Uniform Business Practices (UBP) to take effect on February 19, 2004. The Commission denied the utilities' request to postpone the implementation of pro-ration. The NYPSC ordered the utilities to provide for the pro-ration of payments on consolidated bills to take effect on February 3, 2004. The NYPSC also denied the utilities' request to extend the deadline for completing Phase II testing for electronic data intercahnge (EDI) of information. Utilities must complete testing by January 5, 2004. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.

Staff presented testimony on FirstEnergy's Rate Stabilization Plan (RSP) and Competitive Bidding Proposal in FirstEnergy's Post-Market Development Period case. Staff found deficiencies in the following components of FirstEnergy's RSP: (1) the provision for early termination of the RSP by FirstEnergy; (2) the provision for 35% of the Rate Stabilization Charge (RSC) to be paid by those who arrange for alternative service by the end of 2004; (3) the accrual of deferrals for expenses which exceed 15% of "little g"; (4) the distribution rate freeze; and (5) the accrual of deferrals for the difference between "little g" and the market support price.

Specifically, Staff stated that for commercial and industrial customers, as well as aggregators, the RSP provides the option to arrange for contractual power for 2006-2008 and these customers will not pay the full rate stabilization charge (RSC). These opt-out customers can return to FirstEnergy's guaranteed rate after 6 months of paying FirstEnergy's incremental purchased power rate. Staff believes that there should be a further option that would allow customers to avoid all RSC charges if they agree to pay the incremental purchased power costs for the entire period, rather than for only six months, if they return to the companies supply service.

In terms of the Competitive Bidding Process (CMP), Staff found the following discrepancies between FirstEnergy's proposal and the recently issued Commission Order on CBP: (1) FirstEnergy's CBP would vary on a quarterly basis and the Order calls for the result of the competitive bidding process to be a fixed rate; (2) FirstEnergy's competitive bid prices do not include potential supplier default costs; and (3) FirstEnergy's proposal does not conduct a separate competitive bidding process for two separate customer groups. The full text of Staff's Testimony is available on the NEM website.