Royal Bank of Scotland wants to sell electricity in Pa.

By Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The troubled corporate parent of Citizens Bank is seeking permission from the state Public Utility Commission to sell electricity in Pennsylvania.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, which announced Monday that its losses for last year could reach 28 billion pounds ($41.3 billion), has filed an application with the PUC "to sell electricity and related services throughout all of Pennyslvania."

"Having a bank or a financial institution become an electric generation supplier or an electric marketer is something that we've not seen before in Pennsylvania," said PUC spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher.

"We have seen more and more financial institutions becoming involved in utilities in the state," she said, citing the purchase of Duquesne Light by a consortium led by Australia's Macquarrie Bank.

"You don't have to be a generator of electricity in Pennsylvania to be an electricity generation supplier," she said. "You can be more of a marketer. You just have to have the resources to be able to acquire that generation."

The bank is not new to the electricity business. Ms. Kocher said that when RBS filed its application in November, it was already a supplier in Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Texas, Ohio, California and Oregon. As well, it had applications in progress to supply electricity in Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

The agency has extended the 45-day review period for the application.