LANSING – Some 300 fewer customers are participating in electric choice programs as of December 2015 when compared to 2014, the Public Service Commission announced Monday in its annual report on electric competition. But approximately 11,000 customers remain in the queue.

Specifically, the report founded about 6,140 customers participating in electric choice programs as of December 2015 compared to 6,460 – a drop of 320 – in the previous year, representing about 1,964 megawatts of electric demand – a decrease of about 390 megawatts from 2014.

The state’s current energy law, established in 2008, allows for 10 percent of the market to belong to alternative electric suppliers, though Michigan has had electric choice in some capacity for about 14 years. That law is currently in flux as supporters of electric choice say there are thousands more people “in the queue” for choosing a competing carrier, but traditional utility companies say they’re unfairly stuck with maintenance of the electric grid and lack of knowing when a customer may go to an AES or come back to a larger utility.

DTE Energy’s service territory, at year-end 2015, held the largest share of those choice customers at 4,986, accounting for 1,137 megawatts. But that is down from 5,285 customers in 2014 who accounted for some 1,168 megawatts of electric demand.

Consumers Energy’s service territory was also down slightly compared to 2014, going from 1,050 to 1,030 customers in 2015. The difference in megawatts used went from 771 in 2014 to 751 at year-end.

Rounding out the top three is Upper Peninsula Power Company’s service territory, which served 60 customers at year-end 2015, the same as year-end 2014. Those customers account for 14.1 megawatts of electric generation.

The choice programs at Consumers, DTE and UPPCo are fully subscribed at their 10 percent caps, the PSC noted.

Wisconsin Electric Power Company also saw no change in the number of customers it served (51 total) between 2014 and 2015, but in 2015 those customers accounted for significantly fewer megawatts (56.2) used than they did in 2014 (about 386), the report indicated.

Electric choice load served in the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation territory at year-end 2015 actually increased from 13 in 2014 to 16 in 2015, the report showed, and in doing so accounted for slightly less than 1 more megawatt used over the course of the year.

One customer uses electric choice served through Cloverland Electric Cooperative’s service territory and at year-end 2015 had used 0 megawatts compared to 9.4 megawatts in 2014.

And there has been no choice participation in the Indiana Michigan Power Company’s service territory since April 2013, the PSC reported.

In 2015, the commission issued three new AES licenses and one company, Energy.me Midwest LLC, voluntarily relinquished its license. As of December 2015, 28 AESs were licensed, the PSC said, with 11 of those actively serving customers.

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