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FERC Orders Resettlement of NYISO Billings for Nov/Dec 2012, Grants GDF Suez Refund

December 19, 2014

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Copyright 2010-14 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Karen Abbott • kabbott@energychoicematters.com

FERC has granted a complaint from GDF Suez Energy Resources, NA concerning Consolidated Edison's submission of estimated data to NYISO for billing purposes which grossly overstated the consumption of a Suez customer, and has ordered resettlement of the affected November/December 2012 billing period, which will provide a refund to Suez

The estimated consumption was provided because actual metered data was unavailable due to flooding in lower Manhattan that occurred in October 2012 as a result of Hurricane Sandy, a fact which Suez said it was informed of by ConEd after the NYISO settlement deadline had passed.

Suez said that ConEd provided estimated consumption to NYISO in December 2012 and January 2013 that overstated the Suez customer's electricity consumption during the relevant billing periods by approximately 9.7 GWh (i.e., by more than 260%). Corrected settlement information was not supplied by ConEd until after the NYISO settlement deadline for those billing periods had passed, prompting Suez to seek relief at FERC.

FERC granted Suez's requested relief, stating that Superstorm Sandy was an "extraordinary event," which met the criteria for resettlement

"We also find that significant injustice would result absent Commission action because Suez had no recourse for the failure of Con Ed to submit corrected meter data needed for NYISO to issue corrected invoices within the required 150-day meter data finalization period of the Services Tariff. Despite Con Ed's and NYISO's arguments to the contrary, we find that Suez had no obligation under the Services Tariff to challenge the estimated meter data in order to receive corrected bills based on corrected meter data because section 7.2.3 affirmatively requires NYISO to correct and true-up estimated meter data, whether or not there is a challenge to those estimates. Indeed, the use of estimated meter data was not an 'error' that could be challenged because section 7.2.3 of the Services Tariff expressly permits NYISO to use estimated data in issuing initial invoices," FERC said.

In a statement, Commissioner Philip Moeller said that NYISO could have provided relief to Suez more quickly had its tariff permitted it to use the corrected meter data ConEd provided only 1.5 months after NYISO's five-month deadline had elapsed.

"While this particular case highlights concerns in NYISO, similar difficulties could occur elsewhere, as practices for addressing meter data problems vary markedly among the RTOs/ISOs. Therefore, I encourage all RTOs/ISOs, and in particular NYISO, to work with their stakeholders to ensure that they have transparent processes for correcting invoices and provide market participants with sufficient time to remedy lost or invalid meter data," Moeller said

Docket No. EL14-89

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