New York Utilities Seek Extension to Implement ESCO Vs. Default Service Bill Calculators

Several New York utilities have sought extensions from New York PSC of the deadline for implementation of online historical bill calculators, which are to allow shopping customers to compare actual ESCO costs to shadow-billed default service costs, for both residential and small commercial customers.

KeySpan New York asked for a delay in implementing the calculator until March 2016, due to the implementation of a new customer CIS/billing system at that time. KEDNY said that requiring implementation of the calculator on a legacy billing system due to be soon replaced would be an inefficient use of funds.

Niagara Mohawk and KeySpan Long Island asked for an a 120-day delay in implementation, due to needed time to meet the increased scope of the tool, and to allow for greater testing. NiMo currently has a bill calculator in place for residential customers, but not small commercial customers.

Separately, NYSEG and Rochester Gas and Electric requested an extension until October 31, 2015 for full compliance with the bill calculator order, though the utilities propose to implement an interim calculator by December 1, 2014.

One of the challenges faced by NYSEG/RGE is their use of bill-ready billing, which requires the need to add functionality to their billing systems to accept and display ESCO rates or charges, in order to compare that to the utility charges.

The interim calculator proposed by NYSEG/RGE would only provide the shadow-billed default service charges for a given period, and would not be able to "pull" actual ESCO charges for comparison.