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Enron Mail |
Greetings:
Recall that about 3 weeks we got a call from a CA PUC staffer asking whether we'd switched a particular gas customer (or two) back to the LDC. We looked into it and discovered that we'd mistakenly switched the customer back due to a mix up about the fact that the customer had two active meters behind two different utilities. We informed the PUC staffer of the mix-up and explained that the situation would be resolved. The questions from the staffer arose because the CA PUC made a bad decision a couple of months ago. When gas prices ran up at the California border a lot of large ("noncore") customers attempted to switch back to the utility tariff in the hope of lowering gas costs. In response, SoCalGas filed with the Commission asking the PUC to prohibit customers from switching back. The Commission agreed and put the prohibition in place. The Commission is now concerned that if suppliers terminate their contracts with customers (for whatever reason), or choose not to renew the contracts when they expire, customers won't have the option of returning to LDC service. Today, I received a letter from the President of the Commission asking me to respond to the following: Have you "stopped selling and delivering natural gas to any non-core customers with whom you have an existing procurement contract, or...notified any of your non-core customers that you do not intend to renew an existing natural gas commodity procurement contract. If your company has stopped or intends to stop serving non-core customers, the CPUC also needs to know how many contracts you have terminated or expect to terminate the natural gas volumes involved the location of the non-core customer(s) the reason(s) your company intends or has already acted to terminate those contracts." There's a good chance that the letter from the President of the Commission is linked to the fact that we've recently switched our electricity customers back to utility service in California. Prior to deciding whether and how to respond to the Commissioner, I'm trying to get handle on whether we're re-sourcing any gas retail customers to the utility prior to expiration, choosing not to renew contracts once they've expired, etc. Catherine, or Jim Foster, can you help out? Thanks. Best, Jeff
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