New York Approves Recovery of NiMo Mitigated Default Service Costs

The New York PSC has approved a mechanism for Niagara Mohawk to recover mitigated default electric service costs from February.

The mitigated costs will be recovered from mass market default service customers through the bypassable Mass Market Adjustment (MMA) over a six-month period starting with the June billing period.

Mass market customers include residential (SC-1) and small commercial (SC-2ND) customers.

The PSC rejected a request from the Retail Energy Supply Association that NiMo remove its ESCO versus default service cost comparison calculator during the mitigation and recovery period.

However, NiMo has agreed to modify the cost calculator disclaimer. The current disclaimer, developed with input from RESA and others, includes a prominent statement that a comparison of a bill that includes ESCO charges with a utility bill in any single period may be affected by the utility's monthly adjustments for prior periods, and that consumers should make bill comparisons, if possible, over an entire year. In addition to the existing statement, NiMo has agreed to include the following language: "For example, National Grid implemented a one-time bill adjustment which reduced the amount billed in the month of February 2014 and increased the amount to be billed in subsequent months."