The Public Utility Commission Wednesday issued a final rulemaking order for marketing and sales practices used by electric generation suppliers and natural gas suppliers and also established interim guidelines regarding standards for changing a customer’s EGS.

The Commission voted 5-0 to approve the rulemaking regarding regulations that cover a wide range of topics and recommend best practices for direct (door-to-door) marketing, telemarketing and sales. The regulations will apply to both EGSs and NGSs and to any entity conducting activities on their behalf.

More and more EGSs and NGSs are entering the state’s retail electric and natural gas supply markets. The Commission said suppliers are expected to conduct themselves with the regulations in mind so that their sales and marketing activities do not call into question the fairness and integrity of the competitive market.

This week’s action builds on interim guidelines adopted November 6, 2011, regarding direct marketing, telemarketing and sales after considering comments from interested parties.

The interim guidelines were developed by the PUC’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight as a result of meetings held with PUC working groups including CHARGE (Committee Handling Activities for Retail Growth in Electricity) and SEARCH (Stakeholders Exploring Avenues to Remove Competitive Hurdles).

In a separate action, the Commission voted 5-0 to establish interim guidelines and standards for changing an EGS.  Based on customer complaints and EGS concerns, the PUC’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight explored options to shorten the timeframe for a customer to switch EGSs.  A typical change in EGS can take between 16 and 45 days. 

These interim guidelines are intended to reduce the confirmation period for customer enrollments from 10 to five days.  The establishment of these interim guidelines also stemmed from the Commission’s recent Retail Markets Investigation.

10/29/2012