The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved a plan, "NaturalChoice," allowing customers of Long Island Lighting Co. (LILCO) to purchase natural gas from a qualified supplier of their choice. LILCO is the first company in New York, and one of the first in the nation, to open its gas system to competition.
LILCO's commercial, industrial, and residential gas customers may now choose to purchase gas directly from brokers or to continue purchasing from LILCO. Residential customers and small businesses organized into cooperatives, or into buying groups by brokers, are eligible to participate only if they have a combined load of 5,000 dekatherms (em equivalent to the load of about 35 homes. Brokers will bill customers for the gas used; LILCO will bill for all other services.
"We believe that the marketing activities of the gas broker will increase the use of natural gas," says LILCO chairman William J. Catacosinos. "This will spread our gas system's fixed costs over a larger volume of sales and thereby drive down customer costs."