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Reminder – ALJ’s Recommend Approval of Utility’s Non-Unanimous Default Service Stipulation
On August 21, 2026 two Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) issued a recommended decision supporting approval of FirstEnergy’s default service program VII (DSP VII) for 6/1/27-5/31/31 as modified by a non-unanimous settlement.
As reported previously, the plan among other things establishes competitive procurement of default-service supply through descending-clock auctions, with residential and commercial customers receiving fixed-price full-requirements products and industrial customers continuing on hourly-priced service.
A noteworthy change is the transfer of NITS transmission costs from suppliers to FirstEnergy, with recovery through customer rate riders.
The recommended decision also supports using maximum registered peak load (MRPL) in addition to the existing 100-kW demand threshold to determine whether non-residential customers receive hourly or price-to-compare service, with a two-year grandfathering period for certain existing customer-generators.
The settlement also makes several changes affecting competitive suppliers, including requiring residential customers on new fixed-term EGS contracts to affirmatively remain with the supplier at contract expiration, quarterly attestations of affirmative consent for variable-rate residential customers, and new requirements for EGSs using utility consolidated billing to qualify for FirstEnergy’s purchase-of-receivables program.
The plan continues the price-to-compare and hourly pricing riders, modifies time-of-use rates, eliminates the existing Customer Referral Program after 5/31/27 and makes other tariff and customer-assistance changes.
