Pennsylvania Code
Title 52 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Part I - Public Utility Commission
Subpart C - Fixed Service Utilities
Chapter 69 - GENERAL ORDERS, POLICY STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES ON FIXED UTILITIES
DEFAULT SERVICE AND RETAIL ELECTRIC MARKET-STATEMENT OF POLICY
Section 69.1802 - Purpose

(a) The Commission has adopted regulations governing the default service obligation in § § 54.181-54.189 (relating to default service), as required by 66 Pa.C.S. § 2807(e) (relating to duties of electric distribution companies). The regulations address the elements of a default service regulatory framework. The goal of the default service regulations is to ensure that each DSP provides default service customers with adequate and reliable service at the least cost to customers over time. This goal can be accomplished by structuring default service in a way that brings competitive market discipline to historically regulated markets and by encouraging the entry of new retail and wholesale suppliers. Greater diversity of suppliers will benefit ratepayers and the Commonwealth. However, those rules are not designed to resolve every possible issue relating to the acquisition of electric generation supply, the recovery of reasonable costs, the conditions of service and the relationship with the competitive retail market.

(b) The Commission is very cognizant of the practical limits of regulating large, complex markets. Changes in Federal or State law, improvements in tech-nology, and developments in wholesale energy markets may render obsolete any all-inclusive regulatory approach to this Commonwealth's retail electric market.

(c) The Commission has devised an approach that will allow this Commonwealth to adapt to changes in energy markets and the regulatory environment. The regulations in Chapter 54 (relating to electricity generation customer choice) will serve as a general framework for default service and provide an appropriate measure of regulatory certainty for ratepayers and market participants. This section and § § 69.1801 and 69.1803-69.1817 will provide guidelines on those matters when a degree of flexibility is required to respond effectively to regulatory and market challenges. The Commission anticipates that the initial guidelines will be applied to the first set of default service plans following expiration of the generation rate caps, and that the guidelines will be reevaluated prior to the filing of subsequent default service plans.