D.C. PSC Adopts Updated Affiliate Rules

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February 4, 2011  

The District of Columbia PSC adopted updated energy utility affiliate code of conduct rules (FC 1009, 3/10/09).

The PSC affirmed the following provision in its final rule:

Marketing/advertising material used by the core service affiliate claiming an association with the energy utility shall include a disclaimer that:

(a) The affiliate supplier is not the same company as the energy company, whose name or logo may be at least partially used;

(b) The prices and services of the affiliate supplier are not set by the Commission; and

(c) The customer is not required to buy energy or other products and services from the affiliate supplier in order to receive the same quality service from the energy utility.

Pepco Energy Services had sought only a disclosure stating that the affiliate and utility are not the same, without any additional disclosures.  The Commission denied this recommendation.

The final rules also maintain that "An energy utility shall not provide sales leads to its core service affiliate(s)."

Washington Gas Light had opposed this provision as duplicative of the prohibition elsewhere in the rules against preferential treatment.  WGL had alternatively suggested modifying the rule to allow an energy utility to provide sales leads to its core service affiliate(s) if such leads are also provided to all competitors of the core service affiliate under the same terms and conditions.  

The Commission, however, found that an explicit prohibition on sharing sales leads is appropriate, and also denied WGL's suggestion which would allow the sharing of sales leads with affiliates, if they are provided to competitors under the same terms, as the PSC found that WGL's suggestion would be impracticable to enforce because of the difficulty of effectively monitoring whether an energy utility actually provides sales leads to all competitors.

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