N.J. Admin. Code § 14:4-6.4

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 19, October 7, 2024

Section 14:4-6.4 - Municipal and/or county energy aggregation programs

(a) A municipality or county may choose to establish and/or participate in a stand-alone energy aggregation program, a multi-government energy aggregation program, or a government-private energy aggregation program.

(b) If one or more members of an energy aggregation program is a municipality or county, the energy aggregation program shall comply with all applicable requirements in the rules of the Department of Community Affairs governing local public and public school cooperative purchasing, set forth at N.J.A.C. 5:34-7.

(c) If a municipality or county chooses to establish or participate in a government-private energy aggregation program, such a program shall be authorized by municipal ordinance or county resolution, as appropriate.

(d) A county shall establish a government-private energy aggregation program only if all of the following conditions are met:

1. One or more municipalities with residential and/or non-residential customers that will be eligible to participate in the program has authorized participation in the county energy aggregation program by ordinance;

2. All residential and non-residential customers included in the program are within the geographic boundaries of a municipality that has approved such participation in the program; and

3. The county energy aggregation program will not provide services in a municipality that are already provided by an existing energy aggregation program in that municipality.

(e) A municipality or county may choose to include appliance repair services in its energy aggregation program. These services may be obtained for government use or, in a government-private energy aggregation program, for use by residential and/or nonresidential customers. However, appliance repair services shall be provided only to residential and non-residential customers that affirmatively choose to obtain these services through the energy aggregation program. Potential customers shall be advised of the option to obtain these services through the energy aggregation program as follows:

1. For an Option 1 program, the LDC shall explain this service as an option in its written notice to customers, issued pursuant to 14:4-6.5; or

2. For an Option 2 program, the municipality or county shall explain this service as an option in its written notice to customers, issued pursuant to 14:4-6.6(b).

(f) The lead agency of a government-private energy aggregation program shall be a municipality or county. If the lead agency in an energy aggregation program is not a municipality or county, the program shall not include any municipality or county that operates a government-private energy aggregation program.

(g) There are two types of government-private energy aggregation programs, as follows:

1. An Option 1 government-private energy aggregation program. An Option 1 program has the following characteristics:

i. The program automatically includes all residential customers in each participating municipality unless:

(1) The residential customer has contracted for service with a TPS prior to establishment of the program; or

(2) The residential customer opts-out, as defined at 14:4-6.2, of the program;

ii. The program may, at each participating municipality's discretion, include non-residential customers, as defined at 14:4-6.2, if the non-residential customers are located within the geographic boundaries of the participating municipality and opt-in, as defined at 14:4-6.2, to the program;

iii. The LDC is responsible for notifying residential customers of their option to participate in the program or to opt-out, and of notifying non-residential customers of the right to opt-in. This notice shall be provided prior to the advertisement for the receipt of bids for a TPS; and

iv. The LDC shall be the option administrator, as defined at 14:4-6.2; and

2. An Option 2 government-private energy aggregation program. An Option 2 energy aggregation program has the following characteristics:

i. The program automatically includes all residential customers in each participating municipality unless:

(1) The residential customer has contracted for service with a TPS prior to establishment of the program; or

(2) The residential customer opts-out of the program;

ii. The program may, at each participating municipality's discretion, include non-residential customers that:

(1) Are located within the geographic boundaries of the participating municipality; and

(2) Opt-in in accordance with 14:4-6.6; and

iii. The following duties shall be performed either by the lead agency or by the participating municipalities:

(1) Notifying residential customers of their option to participate in the program or to opt-out. This notice shall be provided after a TPS is selected;

(2) Issuing a public notice to alert non-residential customers of their eligibility to participate in the program by opting-in; and

(3) Acting as the option administrator, as defined at 14:4-6.2.

(h) If a municipality or county is a participant in an energy aggregation program and becomes a member of a larger energy aggregation program, it shall comply with the requirements in the rules of the Department of Community Affairs governing local public and public school cooperative purchasing, at N.J.A.C. 5:34-7.18 and 7.19.

(i) An option administrator may choose to use the Internet as a means to accept opt-in or opt-out responses from potential participants in an energy aggregation program. Use of the Internet shall be accompanied by the option for potential participants to respond using either a toll-free telephone number or a postage-paid, pre-addressed response card.

(j) All documents submitted to the Board and Rate Counsel in compliance with this subchapter, shall be submitted as follows:

1. One hard copy of the documents shall be submitted to each of the following people: the Secretary of the Board, the Director of the Division of Energy, and the Director of the Division of Customer Assistance. These copies shall be sent to the following mailing address: Board of Public Utilities, 44 South Clinton Avenue, 9th Floor, PO Box 350, Trenton, NJ 08625-0350;

2. Two hard copies of the documents shall be submitted to the Director, Division of Rate Counsel, 140 East Front Street, 4th Floor, PO Box 003, Trenton, New Jersey 08625;

3. The documents shall be submitted electronically to the Board and Rate Counsel, in portable document format (pdf) containing a text searchable optical character recognition (OCR) layer, by e-mailing them to: GEA.BPU@bpu.nj.gov and GEA@rpa.state.nj.us, respectively; and

4. The documents shall include a cover letter that shall be addressed to the Secretary of the Board with a subject line that states, "Subject: Government Energy Aggregation Submittal -" and then identifies the name of the government energy aggregation program and the specific section of the New Jersey Administrative Code that requires the submission of the documents. This cover letter shall include all of the following information:

i. The name of each municipality participating in the government energy aggregation program;

ii. The name of each affected LDC that serves the geographic area governed by the participating municipality/county;

iii. Business contact information (name, company name, title, work phone number, work mailing address, and work e-mail address) for the person responsible for submission of the document;

iv. Business contact information (name, municipality name, title, work phone number, work mailing address, and work e-mail address) for a person from each participating municipality who has been designated by the municipality's governing body as a central point of contact for the municipality's governing body with respect to matters related to the government energy aggregation program;

v. A description of the documents provided and, if applicable, the section of the rule pursuant to which it is being filed;

vi. The date that the lead agency currently anticipates that the government energy aggregation program will be implemented; and

vii. A brief description of the government energy aggregation program including, but not limited to, residential and commercial, residential only; gas and/or electric; and the estimated number of customers.

(k) The LDCs shall develop protocols that will allow them to identify their customers who are being served by a TPS as part of a government energy aggregation program, track them separately from those who are being served by a TPS but not participating in a government energy aggregation program, and quantify them in their switching statistics reports that they submit to the Board. The protocols to identify the customers shall be developed as follows:

1. The LDCs that adhere to the New Jersey EDI Implementation Guidelines, incorporated herein by reference, as amended and supplemented, which can be found in the combined Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland EDI Implementation Guidelines, at www.nj.gov/bpu/about/divisions/energy/edi.html, shall work together to develop standardized electronic data interchange (EDI) protocols that, when implemented, would require TPSs sending change orders through an EDI pursuant to N.J.A.C. 14:4-2.3 to identify those customers who are being switched pursuant to a government energy aggregation program. This standardized EDI change control shall be presented to the New Jersey EDI working group by January 17, 2018 for review, edits if necessary, and implementation by April 17, 2018.

2. If an LDC adheres to the New York EDI implementation guidelines, and a government energy aggregation program is implemented that provides electric generation service to its residential customers, the LDC shall develop a method of identifying its customers who are being served by a TPS as part of a government energy aggregation program and file this proposed method with the Board for its consideration within 90 days of the start of service to its customers through a government energy aggregation program. If the LDC's proposed method for identifying customers is not an EDI method, the filing shall include a comparison of the proposed method, and a method that utilizes EDI, and the associated costs, work requirements, and benefits of each of these methods.

(l) The governing body of each municipality that participates in a government energy aggregation program shall maintain a list of residential customers who have advised the municipality, or a designee of the municipality, that they prefer to be excluded from all future government energy aggregation programs. The municipality may delegate the task of maintaining this list pursuant to N.J.A.C. 14:4-6.3(b).

N.J. Admin. Code § 14:4-6.4

Amended by 49 N.J.R. 4015(a), effective 12/18/2017