New York PSC Staff Recommend Central Hudson Provide Comparison of ESCO, Default Service Costs on Bills

New York PSC Staff have recommended that Central Hudson Gas & Electric be required to provide ESCO customers with a comparison of their cost under competitive supply and the shadow-billed cost they would have paid under bundled service.

The recommendations are essentially the same as the recommended actions PSC Staff have proposed at Niagara Mohawk (see earlier story).

Staff's recommendations came in a proceeding reviewing the acquisition of Central Hudson by Fortis Inc. (Case 12-M-0192).

Specifically, Staff recommended that Central Hudson provide residential ESCO customers with, "clear, accurate information concerning the amount that they would have been billed had energy been purchased from the utility, and the difference between that amount and what the ESCO customer was actually billed."

"In calculating the charges that the customer would have incurred had the ESCO customer purchased commodity from the utility, Central Hudson should accurately reflect all taxes, surcharges and other adjustments that would have been applicable on both delivery and supply, had the ESCO customer been a full service utility customer in the applicable time period. Central Hudson should present all such information to customers in a fair and unbiased manner," Staff said.

Staff recommended that Central Hudson deliver this factual information to customers in three ways: printed on its utility consolidated bills, through continued use of its web-based historical bill calculator, and provided to payment-troubled customers in various manners.

Specifically, Staff said that Central Hudson should print on its consolidated bills for residential ESCO customers the following information for both the current billing period and the most recent 12 months: the amount the ESCO customer was actually billed; the amount the ESCO customer would have been billed had energy been purchased from the utility; and the difference between the two.

Staff said that the language used in each bill comparison mechanism should be approved by Staff.

"All such information should clearly state that ESCO products that include value added services may be more expensive and that customers should contact their ESCOs if they have any questions," Staff said.

"Many ESCOs make representations of their products versus the incumbent utility's product, so the comparison simply provides a method to verify ESCO representations after the customer has signed up with an ESCO," Staff said.