New York Utility To Increase Billing Charge Applicable To ESCOs By 30%

New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (RG&E) (collectively, the Companies), New York State Department of Public Service Staff, Multiple Intervenors, and certain ratepayer and green groups have filed a joint proposal in the Companies' electric and natural gas rates cases before the New York PSC, which would increase the Bill Issuance and Payment Processing Charge applicable to ESCOs

AARP New York and the Public Utility Law Project (PULP) oppose the JP

Under the JP, "competitive service rates" (i.e., the Bill Issuance and Payment Processing ('BIPP') Charge, the Credit and Collections/Call Center component of the Merchant Function Charge ('MFC') and Purchase of Receivables ('POR') discount, and the Administrative component of the MFC) are based on the ECOS [embedded cost of service] studies filed as part of the Companies’ rebuttal testimony.

The electricity MFC and the POR Discount will continue to be calculated as stated in the respective Companies’ currently-effective tariffs.

The Companies continue to follow the process outlined in the Amended Stipulation Regarding Purchase of Receivables Discount and Merchant Function Charge (included as Appendix W in the Joint Proposal approved in Cases 09-E-0715 et. al.) and updated in Appendix W of the Joint Proposal approved in the 2016 Rate Order (page 6) for calculating the MFC and POR discount. The fixed components are set by the ECOS study. The fixed percentage factor as discussed in Appendix W of the Joint Proposal approved in the 2016 Rate Order has been updated using current data.

Under the JP, NYSEG’s BIPP charge would increase from the current charge of $0.81 per bill to $0.90 per bill.

RG&E’s BIPP charge would increase from the current charge of $0.72 per bill to $0.93 per bill.

A combination electric and gas customer will receive one BIPP charge applied to the bill. An electric-only or gas-only customer will receive one BIPP charge applied to each bill. The BIPP charge for a combination customer will be the same as that for an electric-only customer or a gas-only customer.

If an energy service company ('ESCO') is providing both the electric and gas service, it will be billed an amount equivalent to the BIPP charge for each consolidated bill. If the ESCO is only providing a consolidated bill for either gas or electric service, it will also be billed an amount equivalent to the BIPP charge per consolidated bill. If a customer has separate ESCOs for electric and gas, the charge for consolidated billing will be prorated between the ESCOs.

Cases 19-E-0378 et al.