New Jersey Committee Advances Retail Energy Customer Protection Bills
September 22,2015
The New Jersey Senate energy committee advanced three bills aimed at customer protections in the retail energy market
Of note is that the committee advanced the Assembly version of A3851 (as S2468) without amendment to the version passed by the Assembly. The introduced version of S2468 would have required the use of a written signature for contracts, prohibiting TPVs and electronic signatures, but the passed version of A3851 allows written and electronic signatures, independent TPVs, and audio recordings of customer-initiated calls.
The main thrust of A3851/S2468 now is that the BPU would be required to develop a contract summary page which, among other things, notifies customers of the, "difference between a fixed rate and a variable rate that is easily understandable by the general public, including an explanation on how weather fluctuations may affect the price of variable rate contracts."
The Senate committee also advanced:
• S2467, which addresses the switching timeline. The committee advanced for purposes of getting the bill out of committee for this session amended language that had been adopted by the Assembly, which essentially codifies the existing process, as the bill states that the utility must receive an electronic enrollment notice from the electric power supplier no later than 20 days prior to the next scheduled meter reading date for the switch to be effective on that date. Retail suppliers expressed concern that this bill would place in statute an excessively long switching timeline, but the committee said such concerns may be addressed via floor amendment.
• S2466, which would require the BPU to provide on its website pricing information for electric generation services provided by an electric power supplier and gas supply service provided by a gas supplier