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Illinois First Notice Order Includes Termination Fee Cap, Waiver Period
July 8, 2011
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Early termination fees for electric service would be limited to $50, and shall be waived for cancellations within 10 days of the first bill, under a new First Notice Order concerning electric customer protections in Illinois (Docket 09-0592).
The Illinois Commerce Commission will now submit revisions to 83 Ill. Adm. Code 412 and to 83 Ill. Adm. Code 453 to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules of the Illinois General Assembly. The ICC will have to vote on the rules again before they are final.
Most notably, the ICC's First Notice Order limits early termination fees for residential and small commercial electric customers to $50, regardless of whether or not the contract is a multi-year contract.
Furthermore, for these same small volume customers, any contract containing an early termination fee shall provide the customer the opportunity to contact the retail supplier to terminate the contract without any termination fee or penalty within 10 business days after the date of the first bill issued to the customer for products or services provided by the supplier.
A customer relying on this waiver provision to avoid an early termination fee shall be precluded from relying upon this provision for 12 months following the date the customer terminated his or her sales contract, the rule states. However, in its order accompanying the rule, the ICC did not discuss how this limitation would be enforced.
The First Notice Order also establishes the rescission period for residential and small commercial customers as lasting 10 calendar days after the electric utility "processes the enrollment," except that if the tenth calendar day falls on a non-business day, the rescission period will be extended through the next business day.
The rule also requires that suppliers performing door-to-door marketing shall conduct criminal background checks and drug tests on all potential door-to-door employees.
Furthermore, persons conducting door-to-door sales may do so only between the hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. unless the jurisdiction where the door-to-door sales take place has rules for door-to-door solicitation that are more restrictive.
The ICC held that only power and energy service that includes power and energy purchased entirely separate and apart from the renewable portfolio standard requirements applicable to suppliers under Public Act 96-0159 can be marketed as "green," "renewable energy" or "environmentally friendly."
The rule defines small commercial customer as a, "non-residential customer of an electric utility consuming 15,000 kilowatt-hours or less of electricity annually in its service area."
"In determining whether a customer is a small commercial retail customer, usage by the same commercial customer shall be aggregated to include usage at the same premises even if measured by more than one meter and to include usage at multiple premises," the rule states.
The First Notice Order also addresses the uniform disclosure statement, customer renewal procedures, and related topics.
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