Order

              STATE OF ILLINOIS
ILLINOIS COMMERCE COMMISSION
Direct Energy Services, LLC
Petition for Emergency Relief to Protect Portions of Direct's Report of Continued Compliance as an Alternative Gas Supplier.
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12-0202
ORDER
By the Commission:
On March 15, 2012, Direct Energy Services, LLC (“Petitioner”) filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission (“Commission”) a verified petition requesting an order protecting from disclosure for not less than two years confidential and proprietary information submitted in compliance with Commission rules. Specifically, 83 Ill. Adm. Code 551.170, requires alternative gas suppliers ("AGS") within the meaning of Section 19-105 of the Public Utilities Act (220 ILCS 5/1-101 et seq.) to annually file a report stating the total amount of annual dekatherms delivered and sold to residential and small commercial customers (“annual dekatherms”) and the total revenues associated with the sale of natural gas to residential and small commercial customers within each utility service territory in the preceding calendar year (“total revenues”). Petitioner is an AGS and as such must comply with Part 551's reporting requirements.
The Commission received Petitioner’s Compliance Report providing the annual dekatherms and the total revenues on March 15, 2012. Petitioner filed both a public redacted version and a confidential unredacted version of the Compliance Report. The Petitioner redacted the figures for the annual dekatherms and the total revenues from the public redacted version of the Compliance Report.
Commission Staff did not participate in this docket. No petitions to intervene were received. Nor was a hearing held in this matter.
In its Petition, Petitioner explains that it considers the annual dekatherms and total revenues included in the Compliance Report to be confidential and proprietary and that the disclosure to competitors, or potential competitors, would be detrimental to the Petitioner. Petitioner explains that public disclosure of the annual dekatherms and total revenues would provide competitors market sensitive information and direct insight into Petitioner’s market share and operations. Petitioner maintains that because this information is market sensitive, the public disclosure of such would be detrimental to it. Petitioner states that disclosure of this information to competitors would erode its bargaining position in the wholesale market since it would allow a counterparty to know the amount of natural gas that Petitioner would need to serve its customers.