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West Penn Power Revised Supplier Tariff Replaces Per Bill Charge with POR Discount Rate

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January 11, 2011

West Penn Power (Allegheny) has filed a revised supplier coordination tariff to, among other things, replace the previously proposed flat monthly fee for utility consolidated billing with a Purchase of Receivables discount rate of 0.16% (R-2010-2207938).

The revised tariff has an effective date of January 31, 2011. No party opposes implementation of the tariff, though the Retail Energy Supply Association will continue discussions with West Penn Power about certain issues. Industrial customers also raised broader concerns with POR programs, discussed further below.

As previously reported (11/4), the tariff would institute a new POR program at West Penn Power, which would be mandatory for amounts billed through utility consolidated billing. Purchased receivables would be subject to a "Company Consolidated Billing Charge" equal to 0.16% of purchased receivables, regardless of customer class. The charge is to recover POR programming costs and will be collected until such programming costs are fully recovered. This charge replaces the $6 per utility consolidated bill fee proposed in the original tariff.

The revised tariff also clarifies that assistance to retail electric generation suppliers (EGS) from West Penn Power which is "reasonable, customary and necessary for EDC and EGS interactions and transactions," or which is necessary to support the, "provision of a Registered EGS's Competitive Generation Service to Customers located within the Company's service territory," shall not trigger incurrence of a $53/hour technical assistance charge contained in the supplier tariff for technical support provided by West Penn Power personnel.

West Penn Power's revised tariff also clarifies when Network Service Peak Load tags will be available. The current period Network Service Peak Load tags and effective dates will be available on the Eligible Customer List and via the EDI 814C transaction. Network Service Peak Load tags for future periods, and their effective dates, will be available on the first Eligible Customer List issued after December 15th. The new tags will be transmitted to all EGS-supplied accounts by the first business day following December 15th via the EDI 814C transaction in accordance with Electronic Data Exchange Working Group standards.

West Penn Power also said that it anticipates that it will commence the new format and content for Eligible Customer Lists in February 2011 (required by the PUC's interim customer list order, see 11/15), and selected the January 31, 2011 effective date for the new supplier tariff to harmonize the revisions with the new Eligible Customer Lists procedures.

The West Penn Power Industrial Intervenors (WPPII), though not opposing implementation of the tariff, took the opportunity to express concern regarding the imposition of POR programs on large customers. West Penn Power's POR program is open to any customers on utility consolidated billing.

"WPPII would like to highlight a going-forward concern regarding the appropriateness of applying the Company's POR program to Large C&I customers' accounts. As a general matter, WPPII is concerned about electric distribution companies like West Penn assuming a credit-risk management role in the retail competitive markets. Particularly with respect to Large C&I customers, EGSs engage in active credit assessments of their potential customers and may embed the cost associated with the risk of non-payment of electric supply invoices. In this restructured market, WPPII questions the appropriateness of electric distribution companies serving as a backstop in this way for EGSs specifically with respect to Large C&I customers," WPPII said.

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