News Stories
Sponsored by Earth Etch. Regulatory insight and compliance solutions for today’s energy markets.
Staff Proposes Additional Limits On Auto-Renewals
From Hearing Officer Memorandum:
“In this Hearing Officer Memorandum, staff is making available revised sub-group meetings slides to the distribution list. The slides related to Automatic Contract Renewals (slides 13-21) and Interim Steps (slides 22-30) are revised from those presented at the sub-group meetings. Additionally, any additions made to the slides are in red and staff has inserted notes as applicable to assist stakeholders in reviewing the revised slides. We look forward to discussing the proposals further with stakeholders. Please contact Tim Federico or Lauren Morris with any questions.
Staff’s revised proposal includes:
Staff Revised Proposal (cont.) 1. Fixed-price products can be automatically renewed only to another fixed price for which the term does not exceed the term of the initial contract (1) 2. No early termination fees. (See: Slide 16)
Staff Revised Proposal (cont.) 3. Customers who are receiving a fixed-price product that is neither Voluntary Renewable nor TVR • Suppliers can automatically renew these customers provided that the new fixed price does not exceed basic service price in effect during the first month of the renewal (1) • Suppliers have option to continue to serve customers or return them to basic service • Suppliers that seek to retain customers at a price greater than basic service can do so only by having the customer “re-enroll” through Energy Switch (2) (See Slide 17)
Staff Revised Proposal (cont.) • Staff recognizes that the proposal must address the scenario in which the “benchmark” basic service price is significantly higher than the prices in effect during recent pricing periods (1) • Staff seeks to explore with stakeholders how recommendations presented by NRG could be incorporated into the proposal (2) • customers affirmatively selecting automatic renewal at the time of enrollment • 3-tiered notification approach • notification of price increase. (See Slide 18)
(Investigation by the Department of Public Utilities on its own Motion into Initiatives to Promote and Protect Consumer Interests in the Retail Electric Competitive Supply Market.)
