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Introduced Bill Aims To Remove Some Restrictions On Retail Choice
HB 2528 bill if passed would become effective July 2026.
{***} “Summary of bill as Introduced:”
Electric utilities; customer energy choice; customer return to service; subscription cap and queue. Removes certain restrictions on the ability of individual retail customers of electric energy within the Commonwealth, regardless of customer class, to purchase electric energy matched 100 percent by renewable energy certificates from any supplier of electric energy licensed to sell retail electric energy within the Commonwealth. The bill requires a licensed supplier to match a percentage of each retail electric customer’s annual load with renewable energy certificates from within the PJM transmission region. The bill decreases from five years to six months the required written notice period for certain electric energy customers to return to service by an incumbent electric utility after purchasing electric energy from other suppliers.
The bill also directs the Commission, by October 1, 2026, to establish a subscription cap allowance for certain utility customers seeking to participate in purchasing electric energy from a licensed supplier. The Commission is required to review the subscription cap allowance every two years starting on January 1, 2028, and electric utilities are required to file their subscription queues with the Commission by January 15, 2027, and annually thereafter. The bill contains an exception to the subscription cap allowance for customers seeking to expand usage at an existing or new facility. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2026, unless the rules and regulations of the Commission promulgated pursuant to the bill specify a commencement date.” {***}
Other bill highlights include:
- lowering the previous-year demand required to purchase electricity from a supplier from 5 MW to 1 MW and permitting multiple customers to aggregate load to meet this requirement;
- allowing commonly owned noncontiguous sites to count as one retail customer;
- lowering the advance notice for return to a utility from five years to six months;
- requiring suppliers (other than distribution coops or municipal utilities) to match a percentage of each customer’s annual load with PJM RECs equal to the RPS obligation of the customer’s incumbent utility;
- removing language permitting any customer to opt for a 100% renewable energy from a supplier if such a plan is not provided by their utility; and
- prohibiting suppliers form selling electricity to a retail customer with peak demand of 1-5 MW if the customer did not receive electricity from a supplier in the previous calendar year and the aggregate total peak demand of all the supplier’s 1-5 MW customers is > 20% of the peak demand of all such customers served by the applicable utility.
