Citizens' Rate Case Settlement Removes Costs of Load Control Program from Generation Rates

A Pennsylvania administrative law judge has recommended accepting without modification a settlement in Citizens' Electric Company of Lewisburg's rate case that would institute a direct load control pilot with costs recovered in base rates, rather than generation charges as originally proposed (R-2010-2172665).

Under the settlement, which is not contested with respect to the load control pilot, Citizens' would be authorized to implement a pilot direct load control program for three years. Customers would receive an annual rate credit in exchange for allowing Citizens' to cycle various eligible appliances.

Citizens' pro forma tariffs suggest that any customer served under Rate Schedules RS and GLP-1 will be eligible for the program, regardless of generation supplier, subject to a limit on participation of 50 customers enrolled on a first come, first served basis.

Costs of the credits paid to program participants shall be included in base rates of the eligible customer classes. This recovery method replaces Citizens' original proposal to recover costs of the credits through the Generation Supply Service Rate (GSSR).

The Office of Small Business Advocate had objected to recovery through generation rates since the GSSR is uniform for all classes, but commercial Rate Schedule GLP-3, which would be paying for the program through the GSSR, would not be eligible to participate.

The settlement was signed by Citizens', the Office of Trial Staff, the Office of Consumer Advocate, and the Office of Small Business Advocate.