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Last modified: 4/3/2003 2:25 PM 1.

4 Draft

GI #726 – Proposals to Deal with Post/Pre Dec 9th, 2002


Enrolments/Renewals

1 Requirements
With the introduction of Bill 210 some consumers are eligible for the price protection rate
of 4.3 ¢/kwh if they signed with a retailer prior to the Dec 9th, 2002. A process needs to
be put in place – either within or outside of EBT for the retailers to identify to the LDCs
when a contract was signed.

2 Considerations
The following points were taken into consideration when brainstorming on solutions to
these requirements:
• Many retailers have many Enrol Requests for consumers that signed contracts prior to
Dec 9th, 2002 that have not been accepted by the LDCs because the consumers are in
arrears. The LDCs are not open to accepting enrolments for consumers in arrears.
• Currently all enrolments received from retailers are considered to be price protected –
as retailers have verified that they are not signing new contracts with consumers.
• It is unclear how many new enrolments (for initial sign-up) will be received from
retailers for contracts signed post Dec 9th, 2002.
• Currently, the Implementation Guide for the EnrolmentRequestBillReadySplit does
not contain a contract signed date or a contract expiry date. Therefore a consumer is
enrolled with a retailer until a Drop Request is received.
• When a customer moves from one LDC territory to another, this needs to maintain
the customer’s current price protected status as it would not be affected by the move.
• Any solution must incorporate both a short-term and a long-term solution. The EBT
Working Group has determined that an EBT solution would take approximately one-
year to implement.
• This document in its current form does not necessarily address the solution for RCB
accounts.
• Any contracts signed up to and including December 9th are deemed to be “Pre-
December 9th”. Other contracts are Post-December 9th.

Prepared for OEB EBT Working Group Global Item #726 – Page 1 of 3
Last modified: 4/3/2003 2:25 PM 1.4 Draft

3 Recommended Solution

3.1 Long-Term EBT Solution: Add new enumerations to the simple type
“billingMethod” to indicate accounts that are Post Dec 9th.

The new values would be used in the following EBT transactions to indicate when an
account was signed after Dec 9th, 2002. :
• EnrolmentRequestBillReadySplit
• EnrolmentRequestRateReady
• ChangeBillingOptionRequest
The new values map to the existing with an additional description to indicate PostDec9:
• DistributorRateReadyPostDec9
• DistributorBillReadyPostDec9
• RetailerBillReadyPostDec9
• RetailerRateReadyPostDec9
• SplitPostDec9

The new values would be used when enrolling contracts signed pre-Dec 9th, otherwise the
originals are used, and the contract sign date or renewal date is assumed to be pre-Dec
9th.
Enrolment Effective Pre-Dec 9th
a) The retailer sends an Enrol Request to the LDC. There are no changes required to
the Enrol Request transaction to handle this enrolment. The LDC upon receipt of
an Enrol Request that has a billingMethod value without “PostDec9” would
assume that the contract sign date is pre-Dec 9th 2002.
Enrolment Effective Post-Dec 9th
The retailer would send an Enrol Request to the LDC that includes the correct
billingMethod type with “PostDec9”.
Contract Renewals
For contract renewals, the retailer would send a ChangeBillingOptionRequest with a new
value in BillingMethod, corresponding to the correct PostDec9 value.
The ChangeBillingOptionAccept transaction contains an element called EffectiveDate.
As with the Enrol Accept transactions, the LDC must populate this element with the
effective date that the change in price protection status will take effect. The retailer
requires this information in order to properly forecast supply and wholesale cost for
renewed contracts.

Prepared for OEB EBT Working Group Global Item #726 – Page 2 of 3
Last modified: 4/3/2003 2:25 PM 1.4 Draft

Advantages Disadvantages
• A minor change is required the Implementation Guides •
and schemas for EnrolmentRequests and
ChangeBillingOptionRequest.
• This solution would not require any changes to be •
implemented until Post Dec 9 contracts are being signed.
Retailers who choose not to sell would not have to
implement any schema changes.
• Solution encompasses both first time enrolments and
renewals.
• Solution could be implemented relatively quickly –
therefore an interim solution may not be required
• Solution can accommodate possible future changes in the
price protection rules in the market, as well as the
anticipated return to market rules

3.2 Short-Term Solution: Use a CSV to indicate accounts that were signed
Post Dec 9th.

Using this method, market participants would identify accounts that were signed Post
Dec 9th by reporting to the distributor in a CSV (comma separated value file) format, out
of band from the EBT system.

The file type is similar to that as agreed to in GI 730, i.e. comma-delimited, one account
of a given type (described below) per line. This file must be sent by the retailer to the
respective LDC at least once every month and will contain only accounts signed Post Dec
9th. As a convenience to LDCs, retailers should attempt to report only those changes that
have not been reported on any previous GI 726 CSV.
Retailers shall send updated account information no more than 30 days in advance of the
given event. LDCs shall set up the account as indicated for its next billing cycle.
The file will contain accounts that are new enrolments and renewals. The difference will
be reported in the “Type” field, containing either “Enrol” or “Renew”.
The mandatory columns in each row are:
Account Validator (per EBT formatting standards)
Name Validator (per EBT formatting standards)
Address Validator (per EBT formatting standards)
Type (either “Enrol” or “Renew”)

For example: Retailer A decides to start selling contracts again. Retailer A will then have
to send a CSV monthly for accounts enrolled or renewed after Dec 9th 2002.

Prepared for OEB EBT Working Group Global Item #726 – Page 3 of 3

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