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Massachusetts Directs Suppliers Circulate Straw Proposal On Shopping Website/Rate Board

January 9, 2015

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Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

The Massachusetts DPU has directed retail electric suppliers to circulate a straw proposal regarding the electric shopping website/rate board the Department is developing.

Retail suppliers agreed to develop a straw proposal at a technical session last week, and the DPU directed that the suppliers circulate the proposal to stakeholders by January 28. The Department will hold another technical session to discuss the straw proposal on February 4.

During last week's technical session, DPU Staff presented a straw proposal for the website for discussion purposes.

Notable features of the straw proposal include that supplier participation on the rate board would be voluntary; that rates would be identified as fixed or variable, and that fixed products would be offered in multiples of three months (e.g., 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, etc.).

Introductory price discounts would be listed as an "Other Product Characteristic" on the site.

For variable products, the rate board would identify the manner/method by which supplier will determine prices, such as at the discretion of supplier based on market conditions, or tied to market indices, specifying both the index and the formula by which prices will be calculated

The website would also show, for variable products, historical prices for 12 previous months (the monthly prices the customer would have paid over the previous twelve months had the customer purchased a variable-price product from the supplier over this time). A separate disclosure label straw proposal would require a similar disclosure on variable rate disclosure labels.

The website would list all fees related to the services provided under the contract, such as termination fees, and would describe the manner in which each fee will be calculated.

Also notable are questions posed by the straw proposal, including whether the website should include a calculator function to assist customers in comparing across products or with basic service. Should the website include monthly market index prices to allow customers to better evaluate variable-price products, the proposal asks?

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