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NRG Seeks Rehearing Of New York Order Banning CCA's ESCO From Sharing Customer Account Number With CCA Admin. Without Explicit Customer Consent
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NRG Energy has sought rehearing of a November New York PSC order concerning municipal aggregation outreach and other requirements which, among other things, prohibits ESCOs, who supply a community choice aggregation, from sharing a CCA customer's account number with the CCA administrator absent the customer's affirmative consent
As previously reported, the PSC affirmed that, after the opt-out period, a CCA ESCO, in possession of the customer account numbers from the utility, shall not provide such account numbers to the CCA Administrator without proof of, "explicit customer consent that the individual account holder has agreed to have their account number shared with the CCA Administrator by the ESCO and for what purposes."
See more background here
NRG claimed that such a prohibition is contrary to its electricity supply agreements with CCAs (NRG did not in comments to the PSC discuss whether such ESAs include any "change in law" or "compliance with all applicable laws" provisions, or similar)
NRG said that its ESAs with CCAs require the ESCO to share information with the CCA Administrator on a weekly basis,
including participating customers' utility account numbers.
NRG said of this data sharing provision of the ESA, "Failure of the ESCO to comply with this
requirement is grounds for termination of the ESA. In other words, enforcement of the Order
prohibiting an ESCO from sharing utility account numbers would force ESCOs to violate their
contractual obligations under the ESA to the CCA Administrator and the participating
municipality."
NRG argued that CCAs already possess the customer account numbers (ECM ed. note: as they existed at a certain point in time)
NRG said, "typically, after the opt-out period has concluded, the ESCO sends a list of customers
with a dummy or fake account number and other information, indicating whether the customer has opted out or not,
to the CCA Administrator, who provides this list to the utility. The utility then populates the information for the
customers who are participating in the CCA program, including the utility account numbers of the participating
customers, [sic] back to the CCA Administrator."
NRG said, "once the CCA program has been established and the CCA Administrator has
already obtained customer account information, it makes little sense to then prohibit the ESCO
from sharing this information back with the CCA Administrator[.]"
NRG said that, unlike the offering of an opt-in additional service where the sharing of customer account numbers may be a concern, requiring affirmative consent from the customer for account number sharing for simply the administration of a standard CCA program, which the PSC has approved to operate on an opt-out basis, doesn't add up, and is contrary to the opt-out nature of service
NRG said that asking customers each week for affirmative consent authorizing the sharing of their customer account number would create a negative customer experience
As part of seeking rehearing, NRG asked for a stay of the November opt-out aggregation outreach order
Case 14-M-0224
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December 19, 2024
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Copyright 2024 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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