In a landmark ruling that may shake up the retail energy industry, the Public Service Commission of New York State released a set of new regulations to increase protections for residential and small business energy customers. Pending the approval of these new regulations, which are currently under review following resistance from the ESCO industry, new restrictions would be placed on the types of energy supply contracts that may be signed with residential and small commercial customers.
The new regulations would require energy retailers to either:
1) Guarantee savings on electricity and/or natural gas as compared to the utility company over the course of the contract term.
Or
2) Source at least 30% of the energy for a fixed rate electric customer from renewable energy sources.
*It should be noted that the new regulations only apply to new fixed rate supply contracts, previously signed fixed rate contracts will be unaffected until they are up for renewal.
The rules were proposed in response to speculation over the marketing tactics, claims, and realized savings in the residential and small business markets. A variety of complaints submitted to the PSC against Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) related to price gouging, misleading marketing, unauthorized account enrollments, and other deceptive practices have demanded reform and increased protection.
Global Energy supports any policy that increases transparency to energy customers and accountability for energy suppliers. When customers are happy, everybody wins. This is a philosophy that we have ingrained in every aspect of our business process and hope that, if the proposed regulations pass, the same philosophy will be applied more broadly across the energy supply industry.