PSC Issues Questions To Utility Concerning New Billing System's Impact on Retail Suppliers

The District of Columbia PSC directed Washington Gas Light to answer a series of questions about its new billing system and its impact on retail suppliers

The questions came in Formal Case 1138, in which the PSC previously noted that, "A new billing system also offers the opportunity to enhance competition in the energy retail market by providing additional billing options for competitive energy suppliers and the opportunity to expedite the implementation of the requirements already imposed by the Commission pursuant to Order No. 12709 by allowing for the incorporation of competitive energy suppliers into the system in a more timely and equitable fashion."

Questions directed to WGL include:

Questions related to WGL’s existing billing system and billing integration practices

1. How many customers in the District are currently served by: (a) competitive natural gas suppliers using WGL’s billing services to bill customers; and (b) WGL for its default service?

2. How many competitive natural gas suppliers have been integrated into WGL’s billing system for the District?

3. Are there competitive natural gas suppliers in the District that are only acquiring metering data from WGL and are billing their customers using their own billing system? If so, how many?

4. What customer billing options are available to competitive natural gas suppliers that enter the retail natural gas market in the District? Explain the difference between the available billing options.

5. Explain in detail the process of integrating competitive natural gas suppliers into WGL’s billing system. How long does it take for a competitive natural gas supplier to gain approval from WGL before it could start using WGL’s billing system? Provide an average, and a minimum and maximum integration time for the last three years. How many competitive natural gas suppliers have been approved and integrated in the last three years?

6. List all criteria applied by WGL to approve a competitive natural gas supplier before integrating it into its billing system. Identify instances when WGL rejected a competitive natural gas supplier’s application for integration? What are WGL’s criteria for rejection?

7. What is WGL’s deadline for completing billing integration of a competitive natural gas supplier? Is the deadline followed strictly and consistently? If not, please explain what circumstances triggered potential delays.

8. What remedies are available to the competitive natural gas suppliers in the District if WGL’s billing integration process takes longer than anticipated?

9. How are billing mistakes discovered and handled when: a) caused by WGL; and b) caused by the competitive natural gas supplier?

10. What is the process for terminating an agreement between WGL and a competitive natural gas supplier? How are the customers’ interests protected?

11. How long does it take to switch a customer’s billing from one competitive natural gas supplier to another?

12. What measures has WGL taken to ensure customers’ and competitive natural gas suppliers’ personal or proprietary information is secured?

13. Provide a copy of all standard agreements (templates) WGL and the competitive natural gas suppliers enter into prior to billing integration. Are these agreements publicly available on WGL’s website?

Questions related to the recent billing errors experienced by WGL and its customers

14. Under Formal Case No. 977, WGL informed the Commission on January 7, 2016 that it has experienced billing errors caused by its new feature – eService portal. WGL’s Bill Error Final Report filed March 8, 2016, stated that these billing issues covered the period from December 21, 2015 to February 25, 2016 and affected approximately 10,000 customers.

14a. Are all billing issues associated with the eService portal remediated? If not, please explain. Did WGL improperly disconnect paying customers as a result of this billing issue? If so, how many customers were disconnected? Did WGL restore timely the affected customers’ service?

14b. In its Bill Error Final Report WGL stated that it was addressing customer billing inquiries as quickly as possible. Please provide the average time for addressing and resolving customers’ complaints related to this billing issue.

Questions related to WGL’s new billing system

15. In Formal Case No. 1127, WGL has stated that it is implementing a new billing system that will be launched in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2016. Is it an entirely new system or an upgrade of WGL’s existing system? If it is an upgrade, what features are being upgraded?

16. Were the eService portal billing errors caused by system changes associated with the implementation of WGL’s new billing system/upgrades? Please explain the relation between the eService portal and the new system, if any. At what stage of implementation is the new system? Provide the project milestones and timelines for each milestone.

17. What is the anticipated launch date for the new system/upgrade? Does WGL plan to run the old and new system simultaneously during a transition period? If so, how long is this transition period?

18. Has WGL already tested the system’s functionalities? What technical difficulties have WGL encountered? How has WGL addressed these problems?

19. What is WGL’s plan to ensure customers will not be affected negatively by the transition?

20. How will WGL transition the competitive natural gas suppliers that are already integrated into WGL’s billing system into the new system?

21. How will pending applications for integration from competitive natural gas suppliers be handled?

22. Compare the existing billing system to the new one. What additional functionalities are expected to be added? What additional benefits would be provided to customers and competitive natural gas suppliers?

23. Will the new system expedite the process of integrating new competitive natural gas suppliers into WGL’s billing system? Compare the timeframes under the existing and the new system.

24. Will the new billing system allow for faster discovery and mitigation of billing errors?

25. Will WGL’s Rate Schedule No. 5 (Firm Delivery Service Gas Supplier Agreement) need to be updated to reflect the availability of new functionalities offered by the system and include deadlines for incorporation of competitive natural gas suppliers? If yes, when will WGL submit proposed changes to Rate Schedule No. 5?