Energy America, Centrica’s U.S. retail gas marketing subsidiary, is calling it quits in the Georgia retail gas market after struggling to build its customer base there last year and then being hit with a fine and other penalties last month by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) for slamming.

The company announced Tuesday that it has begun negotiations to sell its business to interested parties. It said it would cooperate fully with the PSC to ensure an orderly transition.

“Once transition plans are finalized with the PSC, Energy America will communicate those plans to its customers,” the company said in a statement. It said its “aim was to ensure that customers did not suffer any adverse consequences because of this decision.”

Energy America serves 50,000 retail gas customers in the deregulated Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) market. The company said the decision to exit the market was “made in the context of a challenging business environment where it was proving difficult to achieve the necessary scale of operation to create real shareholder value.”

In September, the PSC slapped Energy America with a $413,800 fine for 138 allegations of slamming customers, which is switching a consumer’s natural gas marketer without the consumer’s authorization. The PSC ordered the company to contribute $400,000 to the Low Income Heat Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), with no tax benefits from the contribution, plus $100 in credits to each of the 138 customers slammed for a total payment of $413,800. In addition, Energy America was ordered to pay $5 to each customer for each day that they were not returned to their preferred provider after being slammed. It was the largest fine ever handed down against a Georgia natural gas marketer, and was the fourth fine this year against a retail marketer.

Energy America spokeswoman Cynthia Cordova said the slamming ruling had very little to do with Energy America’s decision to leave the state. “We had a small customer base in AGL,” she said. “The AGL market also has lower usage per customer than any of our other markets. Also current cost to serve this small customer base, combined with related infrastructure investments, wouldn’t allow us to economically serve the customers.”

PSC spokesman Bill Edge said the company is still in the process of meeting the requirements of the order and is required to complete the requirements.

Centrica’s U.S. retail marketing arm serves about 1.5 million customers in four other U.S. states: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Cordova said the company has no intention of exiting any of its other markets.

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