Power supplier settles Pa. 'slamming' case

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Thursday approved a $64,450 settlement with a competitive power supplier that had allegedly tried to switch 2,937 Peco customers in 2011 without authorization.

Investigators blamed the "slamming" on a single rogue salesperson for Public Power L.L.C. of Danbury, Conn. The activity was discovered before most of the customers were formally switched to the new supplier.

But about 263 customers were actually switched, and the settlement requires the supplier to refund more than $22,000 that they were billed for the time they were served by Public Power.

Public Power since has been acquired by Crius Energy, and the PUC noted that the company had cooperated with the investigation.

"We find that Public Power has a satisfactory compliance history and that this incident appears to be of a singular, nonrecurring nature," the PUC said in its order.

Public Power did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement. In a statement Thursday, the company noted it now has a dedicated compliance department.

"Customer slamming allegations in our industry are unfortunate and serious and Public Power treats compliance as a critical part of our operations and our commitment to protecting customers," spokeswoman Cami Boehme said in a statement.