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Excerpts from Maryland Commission Decision: 

{***} “Upon consideration of the Supplier Coalition’s request, as well as Staff and OPC’s comments, the Commission hereby grants the Supplier Coalition’s request to clarify its Notice and amends the Commission’s previous Order to adjust the license expiration date of the first group of retail suppliers, in order to provide additional time to adjust to the new license renewal process. The Commission also clarifies its standardization of the warning notices to be issued. 

The license expiration dates of the residential retail suppliers listed in Attachment A to the Notice shall be April 15, 2025, for the first group of suppliers, April 30, 2025, for the second group, May 31, 2025, for the third group, and June 30, 2025, for the fourth group. 

Each group shall file the supplier’s license renewal applications no later than 30 days before the supplier’s license expiration date. Commission Staff shall send each retail supplier a written notice of its upcoming filing deadline 14 days prior to the deadline. If a retail supplier has not filed for renewal by the filing deadline, Staff shall send that retail supplier a written late notice/revocation hearing warning 14 days after the filing deadline. A chart specifying the above-referenced deadlines follows below: 

Regarding the Coalition’s license fee inquiry and request, the Commission maintains that the license renewal fee shall be $1,000. That fee is per license, and suppliers that offer both electric and gas must apply for two separate licenses and pay $1,000 per license. Additionally, the Commission maintains that under the Annotated Code of Maryland, Public Utilities Article § 1-101 (l) and (p), the definition of electricity suppliers and gas suppliers, respectively, include brokers and marketers, and therefore both are subject to the license renewal requirement.” {***}

As background, see excerpts from the Order:

“ {***} Regarding the Coalition’s license fee inquiry and request, the Commission maintains that the license renewal fee shall be $1,000. That fee is per license, and suppliers that offer both electric and gas must apply for two separate licenses and pay $1,000 per license. Additionally, the Commission maintains that under the Annotated Code of Maryland, Public Utilities Article § 1-101 (l) and (p), the definition of electricity suppliers and gas suppliers, respectively, include brokers and marketers, and therefore both are subject to the license renewal requirement.

On December 24, 2024, the Retail Energy Supply Association (“RESA”), NRG Energy, Inc., and CleanChoice Energy, Inc. (“CleanChoice”) (collectively, the “Supplier Coalition”), filed a request for clarification or modification of the Commission’s Notice.2 The Supplier Coalition noted that Section 5 of SB 1, pertaining to the transition to three-year licenses, does not specify application to residential suppliers, and requested that the Commission clarify whether the SB 1 licensing requirements apply to both residential and non-residential suppliers.

The Supplier Coalition also expressed concern with the January 15, 2025, renewal deadline, as well as the January 3, 2025, warning/revocation notice that is to be sent to suppliers who had not yet filed renewal applications, stating that the warning/revocation notice should precede the renewal deadline. The Supplier Coalition stated that the dates provided suppliers with insufficient time—during the past holiday season—to renew their licenses before they expired. The Coalition requested that the Commission modify the license renewal filing deadline to 30 days before each supplier’s license expiration. Specifically, the Supplier Coalition requested that: (1) the license expiration dates for suppliers whose licenses are set to expire on February 28, and March 31, 2025, be moved to April 30, and May 31, 2025, respectively; (2) the initial renewal filing date for licenses expiring April 30, 2025 be set for April 1, 2025; and (3) warning notices be issued 15 days (or the following business day) after the filing deadline has passed. The Supplier Coalition did not object to the remaining license expiration dates of April 30, May 31, and June 30, 2025, as specified in Attachment A in the Notice. The Supplier Coalition sought consideration of the request at the Commission’s next available Administrative Meeting. On January 8, 2025, the Commission heard testimony from the Commission’s Technical Staff (“Staff”), the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel (“OPC”) and members of the Suppliers’ Coalition. Staff agreed that SB 1’s scope should be limited to residential retail supplier licenses, as well as energy salesperson licenses and energy vendor licenses, under which the license holders are providing services to residential customers.3 Staff also opined that SB 1 did not include an expiration date for commercial gas and electricity supplier licenses, and therefore no renewal requirement needs to be implemented. Staff noted that granting the Supplier Coalition’s requested amended deadlines may not provide sufficient time for Staff and the Commission to achieve the SB 1 license renewal goals. Therefore, Staff requested that the January 15 renewal deadline be moved to no later than March 15, 2025. Additionally, Staff requested that the initial license expiration date of February 28 be delayed until March 31, 2025. The remaining expiration dates for the first group of expiring supplier licenses should remain the same. Staff did not state a position on the timing of the issuance of warning and revocation notices.

OPC did not object to the Supplier Coalition’s request and agreed that clarification regarding the renewal application deadline and warning notice dates was important to avoid confusion in adhering to the Commission’s requirements.

During the Administrative Meeting, the Supplier Coalition inquired whether suppliers that offer both electric and gas service should complete one license application for each service and remit the $1,000 licensing fee for each application. Additionally, the Supplier Coalition sought clarification on whether suppliers that are exclusively licensed as brokers are to be treated similarly to marketers for licensing purposes. Staff responded to the inquiries, stating that electricity and gas licenses should be applied for and issued separately, and marketers are considered similar to brokers under the statute, with both required to apply for license renewals. Staff also noted that the $1,000 fee per license renewal will fund additional investigative positions to fulfill SB 1 requirements. 

After hearing the parties’ comments, the Commission took the matter under advisement.” {***}

See:  Order 91510  – License Reconsideration – ML 314487.