Pepco Says D.C. POR Could be Implemented in Six Months

Pepco is not opposed to the introduction of Purchase of Receivables in the District of Columbia, but urged the PSC to carefully weigh costs and benefits of POR (FC 1085).

Pepco is mostly concerned that it be allowed full recovery of any additional bad debt and administrative costs associated with POR. Pepco did not offer any recommendations on a cost recovery method.

Pepco informed the PSC that, if the PSC adopted an identical POR program to that used in Maryland, Pepco could implement POR in six months once implementation begins. However, staff required to implement POR are currently assigned to other projects, such as advanced metering, and therefore Pepco requested that any POR implementation schedule minimize interference with Pepco's other projects.

If the PSC altered the design of the POR program versus what is used in Maryland, the implementation time would be longer, Pepco said.

The Office of People's Counsel, "opposes the establishment of a POR program because it will not provide consumers with any tangible benefits, will likely result in increased rates due to an increase in [Pepco] uncollectible accounts, and will cause Pepco to assume debt collector responsibilities beyond its statutory obligations."

"There is no basis to support the argument that a POR [program] may attract more competitive energy suppliers to the District, and even if this argument could be supported, it must be balanced against the incurrence of an increase in the amount of bad debt passed on to consumers," OPC said.