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Re: Commission-initiated rulemaking proceeding to consider proposed amendments to the MEPUC’s Consumer Protection Standards for Electric and Gas Transmission and Distribution Utilities (Chapter 815).

Office of Public Authority (OPA) filed comments on the proposed rulemaking. 

Of note, OPA: (1) raises “concerns with the level of authority that would be granted to utilities in transferring balances from prior tenants to the account of a new tenant” by proposed adjustments to rules to prevent customers from avoiding payment of catch-up amounts after a disconnection through name-swapping, and “recommends that utilities should be required to obtain CASD approval before such balance transfers may occur”; (2) objects to “the deletion of the requirement that cycle disconnections not occur if a utility is aware that there are children under 12 years of the age or elderly persons at the Premises”; (3) recommends including “a provision that residential customers enrolled in the Low-Income Assistance Program, Arrearage Management Program or Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program may not be charged a restoration or reconnection fee or a security deposit in connection with the restoration of service” and requiring “that Utilities waive any late fees that have accrued prior to the termination or disconnection of service”; (4) “recommends that the Commission adopt a provision that would prevent disconnections due to nonpayment in extreme weather seasons to include heat and humidity”; (5) recommends increasing the minimum overdue amount necessary to commence disconnection procedures from $50 to at least $100; and (6) objects that “the CASD dispute resolution process should be the final Commission word on a dispute raised by a customer. Rather, the Commission should take this opportunity to establish a separate adjudicatory process through which customers of electric and gas utilities have a right to a hearing and can receive a Commission decision on the merits of their dispute.”

2023-00323  (12/12/2023)