Cawley Seeks Review of Utility Charges for Historical Usage Data

As part of the Pennsylvania PUC's request for comments on the intermediate retail market workplan (see related story today), Commissioner James Cawley has sought comment on the charges imposed on electric generation suppliers for obtaining historical usage from the utilities.

"[I]t may be beneficial to invite comments on various inconsistencies in supplier tariffs related to the cost for access to historical customer and usage data, whether monthly or hourly. This is a concern, since a high cost of accessing historical data electronically, especially for commercial and industrial customers, could lead to less competition and less personally tailored pricing," Cawley said.

Cawley noted that some utilities provide, according to their tariffs, no cost access to electronically requested historical customer and usage information, whereas other utilities may only provide this historical customer data on behalf of a customer to an EGS at no charge only once per calendar year.

"This places the EGS that first requests the data at a competitive advantage to subsequent EGSs requesting information for the same customer in close time proximity. Moreover, if data is requested electronically through automated processes, it is unclear if the magnitude of charges (often $60 per account per the filed supplier tariffs) is justified. These high data charges may not actually be billed/imposed at this time, so it is not clear if that is the reason for the current lack of attention to these charges," Cawley added.

"Regardless, further information on these potential barriers, or other EDC charge barriers, would be welcome," Cawley said.