PUC Commissioners Slam Utility Over Non-Compliance With Choice Enhancement

The Pennsylvania PUC denied Duquesne Light's request for an extended waiver to implement accelerated customer switching, as Chairman Robert Powelson and Commissioner Pamela Witmer slammed the utility for being "consistently wrong" in estimating when it would be able to offer a solution permitting customers to complete one off-cycle switch within three business days per billing cycle.

Prior to full compliance, Duquesne Light had proposed an interim accelerated switching solution, under which some 91% of customers would be allowed to complete a single off-cycle accelerated switch, completed within three business days, per billing cycle. Duquesne Light originally said that it anticipated implementing this interim solution by December 15, 2014, but said that such implementation was contingent on progress in implementing a new customer billing system. Duquesne Light has since said that, to provide more testing and avoid implementing the accelerated switching solution during the stabilization period of the new billing system, implementation of the accelerated switching solution has been delayed until late February 2015.

"Duquesne has been consistently wrong in its representations to the Commission as to when it will be able to meet the partial waiver that was granted in the December 4 Order. Duquesne first represented that it would be able to provide a workable off-cycle switch solution by December 15. Then the date was moved to January 16. Most recently, the Company filed a letter stating that the solution could not be provided by January 16 but rather would be 'in the later part of February 2015,'" Powelson and Witmer said in a motion adopted by the PUC.

"Based on this history of imprecision, we fully expect that when the end of February arrives Duquesne will have pushed the compliance date further into 2015," Powelson and Witmer said.

"Duquesne has been on notice for years that the Commission wanted EDCs to reduce the amount of time it takes a customer to change generation suppliers. And yet, a brand new billing system was designed without accelerated switching, thereby depriving Duquesne the opportunity to be a leader in providing this service to its customers. Further, even had the Commission historically not been clear that this goal was a priority, Duquesne has unequivocally been on notice since May that this Regulation was being promulgated and chose not to inform the Commission until shortly before the effective date that it would not be able to comply by the required date of December 15, 2014," Powelson and Witmer said.

Based on the motion of Powelson and Witmer, the PUC denied Duquesne Light's petition to implement an interim solution that would allow only customers contacting the utility about a variable rate to return to default service on an accelerated basis.

"The rationale in this instance remains the same; this component of the Company's proposal is moot since we believe Duquesne should be required to provide one off-cycle switch per billing period," Powelson and Witmer said.