Archive

Daily Email

Events

 

 

 

About/Contact

Search

PSC Staff Recommends Marginally Higher Bypassable SOS Administrative Adjustment At BGE

October 2, 2019

Email This Story
Copyright 2010-19 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

The following story is brought free of charge to readers by EC Infosystems, the exclusive EDI provider of EnergyChoiceMatters.com

In rebuttal testimony, Staff of the Public Service Commission of Maryland have filed an updated recommendation for the bypassable electricity SOS Administrative Adjustment at Baltimore Gas & Electric, with the rates marginally higher than Staff's initially proposed rates

Citing a prior PSC order, Staff said that SOS Administrative Adjustment should include two elements; 1) the incremental costs SOS causes BGE to incur as well as 2) a proxy for customer costs that retail suppliers incur beyond those identified as incremental SOS costs that are currently in BGE distribution rates.

As a result, a witness for Staff said that, "I propose that any directly identifiable incremental SOS costs in BGE distribution rates be assigned to the SOS Administrative Adjustment. BGE embedded costs that are similar to those that retail suppliers incur beyond those identified as incremental costs should be allocated based on revenue."

Staff's testimony delineated several areas where BGE had not proposed to assign costs to SOS since there was no incremental SOS cost related to such activities, but which Staff said should be partially allocated to SOS because the costs are similar to costs that are incurred by retail suppliers. It is these additional costs, which were not included in Staff's original recommendation, which have led to a slightly higher proposal for the SOS Administrative Adjustment rates. At the time of its original recommendation, Staff said that it had not yet conducted a full review of all costs BGE separates between the electric distribution and SOS functions

Staff said that the costs that are best characterized as non-incremental but which are incurred by retail suppliers, and currently recovered in BGE distribution rates, include billing system depreciation and amortization expenses, billing costs, credit and collections costs, and call center costs

In addition to regulatory, legal, and accounting SOS costs, Staff also said that a portion of the following expenses should be included in the SOS Administrative Adjustment, either based on actual incremental costs, or based on an allocation of revenue between SOS and distribution service:

• FERC Account 909 Informational and Instructional Advertising Expense

• FERC Account 910 Miscellaneous Customer Service and Informational Expense

• Additional FERC Account 920 Administrative and General Salaries

• FERC Account 921 Office Supplies and Expenses

• FERC Account 923 Outside Services Employed

• FERC Account 930.2 Miscellaneous General Expenses

• General Plant Deprecation Amortization FERC Account 391

As a result, Staff proposed the following levels for the SOS Administrative Adjustment

Updated
Staff Recommended SOS Administrative 
Adjustment Rates By SOS class

            mills per kWh
Residential      1.37 
Type I           1.17
Type II          0.46
Hourly           0.33


For comparison, Staff had originally recommended the following lower amounts for the SOS Administrative Adjustment. At the time of its original recommendation, Staff said that it had not yet conducted a full review of all costs BGE separates between the electric distribution and SOS functions

Original
Staff Recommended SOS Administrative 
Adjustment Rates By SOS class
            mills per kWh
Residential      1.11
Type I           0.95
Type II          0.40
Hourly           0.28

For further comparison, BGE has proposed to set the bypassable SOS Administrative Adjustment at 1.00 mill per kWh, for all of BGE’s SOS customer classes, after BGE provided a cost of service study finding that the costs included under the SOS Administrative Adjustment at 0.99 mills per kWh

For further comparison, a coalition of retail suppliers has recommended setting the SOS Administrative Adjustment as follows:

Coalition Recommended SOS Administrative 
Adjustment Rates By SOS class
            mills per kWh
Residential     11.82 
Type I          21.06 
Type II         21.06 
Hourly          21.06 

In initial testimony, OPC opposed the BGE proposal

Other parties also filed rebuttal testimony furthering their positions. A witness for BGE, in opposing the energy supplier coalition's (ESC) proposal, said, "In response to ESC’s implication, I assert unequivocally that in no way has BGE tried to keep SOS prices artificially low in order to take advantage of any perceived incentive to retain SOS customers. On the contrary, and as cited in ESC’s own testimony, BGE was on record in Case No. 9221 advocating strongly for an Administrative Adjustment -- that is, one that results in a market price for SOS. To that end, BGE prepared a COSS that results in a reasonable Administrative Adjustment level for all customer classes."

Case 9610

ADVERTISEMENT
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
NEW! -- Channel Partner Sales Manager -- Retail Supplier
NEW! -- Sales Channel Partner Manager -- Retail Supplier
NEW! -- Sr. Energy Analyst -- DFW
NEW! -- Channel Manager - Retail Division -- Retail Supplier
NEW! -- Sr. Accountant -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
NEW! -- Senior Counsel -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
NEW! -- Operations/Settlement Analyst
NEW! -- Retail Energy Supply RFP Coordinator
NEW! -- Jr. Gas & Power Scheduler/Trader -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
NEW! -- Marketing Coordinator -- Retail Supplier -- Houston
Corporate Counsel - Retail Supplier
Senior Counsel - Regulatory - Retail Supplier
Sales Representative -- Retail Supplier

Email This Story

HOME

Copyright 2010-19 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