|
Consulting |
Abbreviations |
Search |
Advertise with Energy Choice Matters
This space is taken, but prime spots still available on each sidebar. Call Paul
Ring 954-
About 20% of Vectren Delivery Customers Leaving the SCO Remain with SCO Supplier
Email
This Story
October 5, 2010
Only 7.5% of Standard Choice Offer (SCO) customers at Vectren
Energy Delivery of Ohio have moved to a non-
Of some 195,000 customers assigned to an SCO provider, only 14,700 have switched
to a non-
Of those 14,700 customers electing an alternative product, nearly 80% have chosen a provider other than their SCO provider. Only 3,340 (22.7%) customers assigned to an SCO supplier who have elected an alternative product have chosen a different offer from their SCO supplier.
"At this time only five marketers are actively soliciting Choice customers in Vectren's service territory so the 22.7 percent figure does not appear unduly large," Staff said.
However, Staff noted that one of the SCO suppliers does not solicit customers for individual Choice enrollments (and only procures load in the auction). This means that customers of this SCO supplier had to elect an alternative supplier if they wanted Choice service, and thus their experience does not speak to any potential advantage an SCO supplier may gain in enrolling customers onto a Choice product.
The winning SCO suppliers at Vectren Energy Delivery were SouthStar Energy Services, Vectren Retail, DTE Energy Trading, and Interstate Gas Supply. DTE Energy Trading is not marketing Choice service to individual mass market customers. The two Choice suppliers at Vectren which did not win SCO load are Direct Energy and MXenergy.
Accordingly, Staff removed the 4,460 customers assigned to the SCO supplier not serving Choice load who have elected a Choice product from its calculations, which results in the amount of SCO customers electing Choice equaling 10,200, and changed the percentage of those Choice customers that enrolled with their SCO provider to 32.6%, as opposed to 22.7%.
"Although somewhat higher than the 22.7 percent figure previously calculated, Staff does not believe these data indicate that SCO customers are being enticed to switch to an alternative Choice offer from their SCO provider at an unusually high rate."
Of those 3,340 customers choosing an alternative offer from their SCO provider, some 91% (3,030) elected a fixed price offer.
Staff also provided data specific to each of the three SCO suppliers who are also
enrolling Choice customers:
Marketer: A
B C
(1) Percent that moved to Choice: 6.5%
6.4% 9.2%
(2) Percent that stayed with SCO provider: 3.3% 51.9%
36.1%
(3) Percent that enrolled in fixed price offer: 71.8% 84.3% 94.6%
Where
(1) is the percentage of each provider's SCO customers that moved to Choice; (2)
is the subset of (1) that moved to a Choice offer with their original SCO provider;
and (3) is the subset of (2) that enrolled in a fixed price contract.
Staff noted the large disparity in the percentage of those customers that left the SCO for Choice that enrolled with their SCO provider, ranging from 3.3 to 51.9 percent. "This degree of discrepancy may indicate different solicitation practices. Although Staff is unaware of any specific issues in this regard for any of these Companies, we believe this is an appropriate forum to restate the rules regarding soliciting to customers. The federal 'do not call' registry allows an exception for consumers with which the soliciting party has a current commercial relationship. The PUCO rules however do not provide for such an exception for customers that have opted out of being listed on the customer list compiled by the LDCs," Staff noted.
Staff reported that 90.8% of those customers electing an alternative product from
their SCO provider enrolled in a fixed price option. "This percentage seems extremely
high given that, system wide, only 14.4 percent of all non-
"Regardless of the explanation, although the total number of SCO customers that have moved to a fixed price contract as opposed to a variable rate is relative large, it is nonetheless only 1.5% of SCO customers overall. Given the small number, Staff does not believe the data supports a hypothesis that SCO customers are being unduly influenced to switch to fixed price contracts. Staff is not recommending any specific action by the Commission at this time," Staff said.
Copyright 2010 Energy Choice Matters. If you wish to share this story, please email or post the website link; unauthorized copying, retransmission, or republication prohibited.
Be Seen By Energy Professionals in Retail and Wholesale Marketing
Run Ads with Energy Choice Matters
Call Paul Ring 954-
|
Consulting |
Abbreviations |
Search |