EnergyChoiceMatters.com

ESCOs File Complaint Over "Unlawful" Invoices From Utility

August 3, 2015

Email This Story
Copyright 2010-15 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

The Small Customer Marketer Coalition filed a complaint at the New York PSC against KeySpan Gas East Corporation (National Grid), alleging that the "retroactive" cash out invoices issued by the utility to ESCOs in July 2015 covering the month of June 2015 are, "unlawful, arbitrary and capricious."

SCMC said that its members noted that the invoices purported to be for June cash outs, "noticed that the balances due under these cash out bills were clearly unrelated to service provided in the previous month."

"In fact the Company was demanding that ESCO's submit cash out payments ranging from $250,000 to in excess of $1.3 million depending on the particular ESCO," SCMC alleged.

In response to numerous Complaints from ESCOs regarding these cash out bills for June 2015, SCMC alleged that National Grid sent an email to ESCOs stating as follows:

"National Grid discovered between December 2013 - March 2014, there were missing Long Island transactions not sent over from our customer system. December 2013 was when a Long Island system conversion took place and we believe this was the reason for the missed transactions. It does affect all ESCO's. The data that was missing, was recovered, and applied to the recent June 2015 imbalance reports. This is the reason ESCO's are seeing transactions on their detail imbalance reports dating back over a year ago. These transactions represent a true-up between actual usage and what was delivered by the ESCO. Any imbalance charges associated with this recovered usage has no impact on any POR payments."

"As explained by the Company, the bills issued for June 2015, did not reflect cash out activity for that month. The Company under the guise of the June bills has attempted to retroactively apply cash out charges to ESCOs based upon previous activity that allegedly occurred from December 2013 through March 2014 -- more than 18 months ago. The need for this retroactive billing was not due to any error, omission or action by the ESCOs involved. Instead, as admitted by the Company, the Company 'discovered' that between December 2013 - March 2014, there were missing Long Island transactions that were allegedly not sent over from its our customer system. The Company further speculates that this failure was related to the Long Island system conversion that took place took place in December 2013 and this may be the reason for the missed transactions. In sum, the retroactive cash out billings are solely the result of the Company's failed and defective billing system," SCMC said

SCMC called National Grid's actions plainly contrary to the utility's Gas Transportation Operating Procedure Manual

"As [a] GTOP provision makes amply clear, at the end of each month, the Company is directed to compare the monthly quantity of gas delivered by the ESCO for that month to the actual usage by the customers for that same monthly current period. The ESCO would then be billed at the GTOP stated cash out price for the amount of gas supplied by the utility in that month for the ESCOs customers that exceeded the ESCOs deliveries. The GTOP makes clear that the monthly bill is only to reflect activity applicable to the billing month and there is no allowance to include billings or other factors related to a differing prior period. Without question, the GTOP does not authorize or empower or authorize the Company to issue retroactive cash out billings to ESCOs," SCMC said

"As admitted by the Company, its current foray into retroactive billing is merely an effort to overcome its own failure to operate and provide a functioning and accurate billing system. The GTOP mandates that the Company issue timely and current cash out bills that reflect activity occurring in the billing month. The Company failed to meet this obligation solely due its own defective system. ESCOs had nothing to do with or in any other way contribute to this failure. Accordingly, ESCOs should not be held liable for the Company's negligence and inability to comply with its GTOP responsibilities," SCMC said

"The Company claims that ESCOs are to be assessed charges on a retroactive basis allegedly based upon new data the Company has now first discovered more than 18 months after the actual events transpired. This data was allegedly lost during the conversion of the Long Island billing system in December 2013. The Company provides no persuasive or reliable basis to demonstrate the accuracy of the retroactive billings and the validity of the newly discovered transactions," SCMC said

SCMC noted long-standing billing problems at KeySpan, stating that many commercial and residential customers served by ESCOs are experiencing purported usage readings that are clearly erroneous and out of line with past usage history.

SCMC also noted that the utility's billing errors also negatively impacted the accurate allocation of capacity release

Email This Story

HOME

Copyright 2010-15 Energy Choice Matters. If you wish to share this story, please email or post the website link; unauthorized copying, retransmission, or republication prohibited.

Archive

Daily Email

Events

About/Contact

Search