| (f) Customer education. Customer education for the
pilot projects shall be conducted as part of the statewide customer
education campaign for introducing customer choice. Included in this
campaign will be announcements regarding the opportunity to participate
in the pilot project and instructions on obtaining further information
about the pilot project. The commission shall mail information written
in English and in Spanish explaining the pilot project to eligible
non-residential customers no later than March 1, 2001, and to eligible
residential customers no later than April 15, 2001. The utility shall
provide the commission or its designee with customer information necessary
to implement this subsection. For purposes of this subsection, §25.272(g)(1)
of this title (relating to Code of Conduct for Electric Utilities
and Their Affiliates) does not apply with regard to proprietary customer
information released to the commission or its designee. The mailing
may contain information including, but not limited to:
(1) a description of the pilot project;
(2) the commission's central call center phone number
and Internet website operating to respond to customer questions and
requests for information;
(3) a list of REPs certified as of a date certain,
including the telephone number and, if available, Internet website
address for each REP, and a statement disclosing that the REP list
is continually updated and how the customer can obtain an updated
list; and
(4) a clear, plain language description of customer
choice and the price to beat.
(g) Customer choice during pilot projects. The following
procedures shall be used for customers to participate in the pilot
projects within the designated time periods for each applicable customer
class.
(1) Administration. For all customer classes, a REP
shall submit requests to switch customers participating in the pilot
projects to the registration agent beginning on May 31, 2001, and
power delivery in conjunction with the pilot projects may begin on
June 1, 2001. For purposes of this section, any electronic submission
to the utility shall be executed using a standard electronic data
interface (EDI) protocol (814) to be included in the utility's compliance
filing.
(A) Except where explicitly stated otherwise in this
section, a REP shall electronically submit switch requests to the
utility for counting and validation purposes prior to submitting such
requests to the registration agent. The utility shall maintain a weekly
updated list of non-matching, rejected ESIs on its pilot project Internet
website.
(B) Except for the industrial demand-metered class,
there shall be no out-of-cycle meter reading requests submitted for
purposes of the pilot project before July 1, 2001.
(C) Members of the non-residential customer classes
may elect to waive the verification and recision process of the registration
agent.
(D) A participating customer shall have the right to
change from one REP to another REP in accordance with the switching
procedures adopted by the commission.
(E) Beginning April 16, 2001, a REP shall electronically
report to the utility any switch request for a customer or an aggregation
packet with a listing of the ESIs to be switched to the REP as set
forth in this paragraph. After the utility confirms that a non-residential
ESI or aggregation packet is on the associated participant list, the
utility shall submit the ESI to the registration agent. The registration
agent shall keep a record of all the ESIs identified by the utility
for participation in the pilot. The REP shall be responsible for submitting
to the registration agent the ESIs associated with the switch request
to serve. If the ESI identified by the REP matches an ESI identified
by the utility, then the registration agent shall allow the registration
process to continue.
(F) Because the utility is assigned the responsibility
to administer the pilot project, except for complaints arising under §25.272
of this title, which may be made in accordance with procedures established
under that section, a claim by any party of unreasonableness associated
with the administration of the pilot project will first be addressed
by the pilot implementation working group established by subsection
(j)(4) of this section. If the complaint is not resolved within ten
working days of initial notification to the pilot implementation working
group, the complaint may be filed with the commission.
(2) Residential customer class.
(A) Determination of the 5.0% load available for customer
choice. For residential customers, the load available for customer
choice shall be determined by calculating 5.0% of the number of ESIs
in this customer class as of December 31, 2000. No later than January
31, 2001, the utility shall determine the amount of load available
for this customer class and shall make that information publicly available
through its pilot project Internet website. For this customer class,
20% of the 5.0% load available for customer choice shall be initially
set aside for each customer class (hereafter referred to as the 1.0%
set-aside) for aggregated loads.
(B) Initiating switching. Beginning February 15, 2001,
a REP may accept authorizations to switch providers from residential
customers. A REP shall notify the utility of such authorizations for
residential customers.
(C) Reaching the 5.0% load limit. For purposes of this
subparagraph the total number of ESIs eligible to switch determined
in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, less the number of ESIs that
have already authorized a switch, shall be referred to as the amount
of available load.
(i) As each customer in this class authorizes a switch
to another provider, the amount of available load shall be decremented
by one.
(ii) When the amount of available load reaches zero,
no more switch authorizations shall be accepted.
(3) Non-residential customer classes.
(A) Determination of the 5.0% load available for customer
choice. No later than January 31, 2001, the utility shall make the
results of the following calculations for each non-residential customer
class publicly available through its pilot project Internet website.
For each non-residential customer class, 20% of the 5.0% load available
for customer choice shall be initially set aside for each customer
class (hereafter referred to as the 1.0% set-aside) for aggregated
loads.
(i) Non-residential, non-demand metered customers.
For non-residential, non-demand metered customers, the load available
for customer choice shall be determined by calculating 5.0% of the
number of ESIs in that customer class as of December 31, 2000.
(ii) Industrial demand-metered customers; commercial
and all other demand-metered customers. For each of the demand metered
customer classes, the load available for customer choice shall be
determined by calculating 5.0% of the sum of the kilowatts invoiced
by the utility to all ESIs in each customer class for meter reading
dates during the utility's peak demand month in the year 2000. In
addition, the utility shall determine the individual ESI load caps
for each demand metered customer class by calculating 20% of the load
available for the pilot project in each demand-metered customer class.
(iii) Other customers as defined in subsection (d)(2)(E)
of this section. For all other customers, the load available for customer
choice shall be determined by calculating 5.0% of the sum of the kilowatt-hours
for which all ESIs in this customer class were invoiced by the utility
during the twelve month period ending December 31, 2000. In addition,
the utility shall determine the individual ESI load caps for this
customer class by calculating 20% of the kilowatt-hours available
for the pilot project in this customer class.
(B) Amount of available load. For purposes of this
paragraph, the total load available for customer choice determined
in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, less the amount of the customer's
ESI load used for calculation in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph,
shall be referred to as the amount of available load for each non-residential
customer class. For an ESI that was not included in the calculation
in subparagraph (A) of this paragraph, hereinafter called a new ESI,
the customer's ESI load shall be determined as follows:
(i) For the non-residential, non-demand metered class,
a new ESI shall count as one ESI against the total number of ESIs.
(ii) For the demand-metered classes, the demand allocated
to a new ESI shall be 95% of the utility-estimated demand for the
new ESI.
(iii) For the other class as defined in subsection
(d)(2)(E) of this section, the energy allocated to a new ESI shall
be 95% of the utility-estimated annual kilowatt-hours for the new
ESI.
Cont'd... |
