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New York PSC Denies NRG's Sought Rehearing Concerning Sharing Of CCA Customer Info By ESCO With CCA Administrator
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The New York PSC denied rehearing of its November 2024 order concerning municipal aggregation outreach and other requirements which, among other things, prohibited 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
The PSC in November 2024 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."
NRG claimed that such a prohibition is contrary to its electricity supply agreements with CCAs
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 also argued that CCAs already possess the customer account numbers
NRG had 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."
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On rehearing, the PSC reiterated that the prohibition, on an ESCO sharing CCA customer account numbers with the CCA administrator, was established under prior orders, and that the November 2024 order did not establish a new policy
As such, the PSC said that NRG's objection to such prohibition represents an untimely request for rehearing of prior PSC decisions on customer information sharing, both generally and at CCAs
The PSC reiterated that, under the CCA program, data may only be shared as follows in the absence of specific customer authorization:
1. Aggregated Customer and Consumption Data, sent by the utility to the CCA Administrator or municipality
2. Customer-specific address and contact information, sent by the utility to the CCA Administrator or municipality, for purposes of mailing the opt-out letter
3. Detailed Customer Information: After the opt-out period has ended, the utility may share detailed customer information with only the ESCO, for purposes of enrollment and program participation, consistent with Electronic Data Interchange standards.
Specifically, the PSC said that, while a 2016 CCA Framework Order did initially allow customer account numbers to be included in the customer contact data set sent by the utility to the CCA administrator, that authorization was ended in a 2017 order authorizing Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance, Inc. (MEGA) to serve as a CCA administrator
"[T]he argument that CCA Administrators can obtain customer account information directly from the utility is incorrect. The only customer information the utility is allowed to share with the CCA Administrator is the aggregated data set and customer contact information used to facilitate mailing of opt-out letters, neither of which include account number or customer billing information," the PSC said
Moreover, the PSC said that the 2017 MEGA order, "reiterated that ESCOs could receive detailed customer information pursuant to existing Uniform Business Practices (UBPs), but did not allow for the ESCO to share this customer information with the CCA Administrator."
The PSC also said that an ESCO sharing, with the CCA administrator, specific customer information, without specific customer authorization, is contrary to the UBPs which require ESCOs to obtain customer authorization for any sharing of customer data
"Even in the CCA program construct, where proxy consent is given by the municipality in lieu of individual consent, data sharing must still comply with Commission rules and requirements. Neither the proxy consent nor any ESA terms would override individual customer consent requirements when the ESCO is seeking to share customer data outside of the intended purpose that consent was obtained for. In other words, the ESCO cannot share customer specific details with any party until it has first received affirmative consent to do so, no matter what it has agreed to in an ESA," the PSC said
"NRG has not pointed to a Commission rule that would allow the ESCO to share unconsented customer specific account information, including account number, with any party, including the CCA Administrator or municipality," the PSC said, in finding that no error of law or fact has been presented in the rehearing request
Case 14-M-0224
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February 14, 2025
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Copyright 2025 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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