Rochester

Illicit Marketing Practices

State PUCs take aim at unscrupulous electric and gas suppliers.

We’ll cover state PUC rulings from New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio, dealing with 1) billing overcharges, 2) deceptive promises of savings, 3) faulty enrollment practices, 4) “slamming,” 5) misleading sales scripts used in telemarketing, 6) hidden fixed charges, and 7) concealed pass-through clauses.

Digest (April 2015)

PG&E asked state regulators for permission to build ~ 25,000 EV chargers across its service area in Northern and Central California - if approved, it would mark the largest deployment of EV charging stations in the country; Lockheed Martin and Dominion Resources have co-developed a new smart grid technology called VirtuGrid to enable remote detection of power outages for faster mapping and response; Panda Power Funds and Sunbury Generation LP will develop, finance, construct and operate a 1,000-MW gas-fired, combined-cycle power project in Pennsylvania; Siemens secured an order of 157 wind turbines in South Africa from Mainstream Renewable Power; PSE&G recently put two new landfill solar farms in service as part of its Solar 4 All program; Exelon Generation will add 195-MW of electric generation capacity at the Medway (Mass.) facility; ABB won a $35 million order for gas-insulated switchgear and shunt reactors from Belgian electricity transmission system operator Elia; Iberdrola USA agreed to acquire UIL Holdings and create a newly listed publicly traded company; Chesapeake Utilities agreed to merge Gatherco into Aspire Energy of Ohio, a wholly-owned subsidiary; and others...

Digest (Sept 2014)

Duke Energy Progress agreed to purchase $1.2 billion in generating assets from North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency; ABB won a $400 million order that would create the first electricity link between Newfoundland and the North American power grid; Siemens Energy secured an order for a total capacity of 36 MW in Germany; NextEra Energy Partners’ Bluewater Wind Energy Center in Ontario began commercial operation; the Department of Energy took the first step toward issuing a $150 million loan guarantee to support construction of the Cape Wind offshore wind project; and others ...