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PUC Approves Waivers For Utility To Implement New CIS, Declines Measures Sought By Retail Suppliers Related To Blackout Period, Cutover
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The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved an application filed by AES Ohio (Dayton Power & Light or the Company) for waivers of applicable rules and tariff provisions, including certain retail market deadlines, to execute a cutover to a new CIS and billing and related systems
See background on the sought waivers here
The only condition PUCO placed on AES Ohio in granting the waivers is that AES Ohio should provide PUCO Staff biweekly updates identifying issues resulting from the waivers and CIS transition process
PUCO said that it does not find the participation of retail electric suppliers to be necessary for the biweekly updates to be productive or informative.
PUCO did direct that AES Ohio shall, "continue to have open channels of communication and work with IGS and other suppliers in the AES Ohio service territory to ensure that the transition to the ACE [new CIS] project does not unduly burden customer choice."
However, PUCO did not direct AES Ohio to perform any specific actions sought by retail suppliers
In separately filed comments, both IGS Energy and the Retail Energy Supply Association had raised concerns with certain aspects of the AES Ohio CIS "cutover" and sought certain relief from PUCO
Under the new CIS, AES Ohio is issuing each customer a new identifier, a ChoiceID, for customer enrollments.
Because it may take up to 45 days for customers to see their new ChoiceID (as a result of billing cycles), retail suppliers had sought a "grace period" during which time enrollments would be permitted with the legacy customer identifier currently used for enrollment
AES Ohio has offered two measures to address retail suppliers' concerns with the time period under which the new ChoiceID will be rolled out, but suppliers said that such measures will be burdensome and labor-intensive
The first measure is that AES Ohio will create a query system that will allow retail providers to start enrollments after the CIS blackout period (noted further below) with the historic information that is utilized to enroll customers. Retail providers will then transmit that information to AES Ohio and, through a query system, can obtain the ChoiceID for the to-be-enrolled customers, allowing for the completion of the enrollment process.
The second measure is that AES Ohio will ensure that a customer’s ChoiceID is available to each customer through the customer portal.
PUCO found these two measures satisfactory to address retail suppliers' concerns
As previously reported, AES Ohio under the waivers will suspend inbound transactions for retail supplier enrollments, drops, changes, and reinstates from July 20 to August 6, 2024, which impacts 11 business days
Retail suppliers said that this "blackout period" is significantly longer than similar periods at other utilities which have recently completed CIS cut-overs.
IGS Energy said, "IGS argues that the 11 business day blackout period is burdensome on suppliers and will have a negative impact on customer choice by restricting shopping in the AES service territory."
While suppliers had asked that PUCO direct AES Ohio to use its best efforts to work to see if it is technologically is feasible to shorten the 11-business day blackout period, PUCO did not order such action
Case 24-0008-EL-WVR
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May 29, 2024
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Copyright 2024 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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