On June 13, the Public Utility Commission approved a settlement with Astral Energy LLC following an informal investigation into the company’s customer enrollment practices as a licensed electric generation supplier (EGS) in Pennsylvania.

According to the settlement, Astral will pay a civil penalty of $6,000 and continue implementing revisions to its operating procedures to safeguard against the transmission of erroneous or otherwise improper EGS enrollment data to an electric distribution company (EDC).

I&E initiated an informal investigation of Astral after the Commission’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight referred six “slamming” allegations against the company, and the PUC’s Bureau of Consumer Services (BCS) received an informal complaint also alleging slamming against Astral. 

Slamming involves the switching of a customer’s account without their permission.

 In this case, the slamming allegations stem from the mistaken enrollment of several customers by Astral’s third-party vendors during a period of electronic data interchange testing between the supplier and EDCs.

In addition to the civil penalty, Astral has agreed to:

-- Designate one staff member to be solely responsible for electronic data interchange testing with EDCs;

-- Establish a Quality Control Department to follow-up with new and prospective customers and monitor all marketing activity;

-- Establish a Customer Complaint System;

-- Designate its compliance manager as the single point of contact for PUC staff regrading consumer inquiries and/or complaints; and

-- Ensure that its employees, agents and vendors are reminded of the Commission’s consumer protection regulations, with an emphasis on those regulations prohibiting slamming.

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[Posted: June 13, 2019]

6/17/2019