PUC investigators zap unlicensed Pa. power broker
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission investigators have filed a complaint against an unlicensed electricity supplier that signed up hundreds of commercial customers.
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission investigators have filed a complaint against an unlicensed electricity supplier that signed up hundreds of commercial customers.
The PUC's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement is seeking $89,800 in civil penalties against Fair View Energy L.L.C. It also is seeking refunds of an undisclosed number of fees paid by commercial customers from June 2015 through March 2016.
Fair View is based near Erie but has statewide operations. Its website includes a page, showing the Philadelphia skyline, aimed at customers in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
The PUC's enforcement arm said that Fair View was able to avoid state oversight, including fees, a $10,000 surety-bond requirement, and financial disclosures aimed at protecting consumers.
The complaint, which requires formal PUC action, is the latest enforcement measure taken to rein in a rogue supplier whose alleged misdeeds have bedeviled the deregulated power industry. It is the first formal enforcement action against a broker operating without a license, said Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, PUC spokesman.
Filed May 25, the complaint identified Fair View's principals as Jay A. Snyder and Michael P. McCormick, who previously worked for other suppliers and "knew or should have known" they needed a license. Snyder's wife, Amy, is also an officer in the company.
Jay Snyder, reached by telephone Thursday, declined to comment. His biography and McCormick's resume, posted online, say they graduated in the early 1990s with business degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Fair View is one of scores of brokers that strike deals between generation suppliers and commercial and industrial energy customers. The PUC's complaint cited Fair View for 449 alleged violations for each time it signed up a commercial account.
Fair View applied for a license only after the investigation began in February, and it continues to act as a broker even without a license, the complaint said.
Snyder and Fair View Energy were sued in September in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island by Frontline Power Solutions L.L.C., where Snyder was a senior vice president of sales before setting up Fair View in 2015.
The lawsuit alleged that Snyder breached his contract by siphoning Frontline customers and sales agents to his new company by "tarnishing Frontline Power's reputation" with "false and slanderous statements."
The parties reached an undisclosed settlement in March, according to records.
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CORRECTION: The Inquirer on Friday incorrectly reported the Pennsylvania Public Utilty Commission's surety-bond requirement for competitive energy brokers.