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The New York Public Service Commission issues an  order adopting the terms of a joint proposal (JP) establishing electric and gas rate plan thereby dramatically reducing Con Edison’s rate request by Nearly 90 Percent.

In a press release  the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted the terms of an agreement for three-year electric and gas rate plans for Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (Con Edison).  The agreement was either signed or not opposed by 17 other parties in the proceeding. 

“Parties approving the joint proposal (JP) include the company, Department of Public Service (DPS) staff, consumer advocates, environmental groups, and large industrial customers.” 

“The Commission’s action significantly reduces the company’s request for total electric delivery revenues by more than $1.37 billion (87 percent decrease from the initial request) in the first year. The adopted joint proposal delivers $156.5 million in total efficiency savings, defers non-essential capital projects, and supports energy affordability programs and protections for vulnerable customers.”

The Joint Proposal specifically adopted Retail Access Issues -without modification- that include among other things the following: 

1. Monthly Reporting of Account Issues to ESCOs 

The Company will send each ESCO with active customers a list each month with information about their customer accounts that are pending work by the Company at the time of the report. This list will contain two separate datasets. The first will contain accounts that are unbilled for that month (i.e., delayed for one or more bill cycles) and include, where applicable, when a particular account had its billing canceled, giving more transparency to ESCOs and allowing them to escalate specific items for concern. The following data points will be provided within this dataset: 

• Account number 
• Service (electric or gas) 
• Last bill date (effective date) 
• Number of months unbilled 
• Last meter reading (regular or estimate) 
• If the account unbilled after a cancellation: 
  • Cancellation date
  • Reading type of cancelled bill (regular or estimate) 

The second dataset will contain any accounts that are pending a billing adjustment due to a Retail Choice discrepancy, i.e., a mismatch of information between the Company’s billing system and its Retail Access systems, such as when a customer account is billed to date, but the ESCO has not received either the usage, invoice, or both. The following data points will be provided within this dataset: 

• Account number
• Effective/inquiry date (the date the discrepancy occurred between the Company’s billing and retail access systems) 
• Service (electric or gas) 
• Last billed date (any bills between this field and the effective date would indicate the period impacted) 
• Reason adjustment required 

During the rate period, the Company will further explore the feasibility of reporting on additional known pending adjustments for reasons other than Retail Choice discrepancies. For both datasets, the list of customers will include both current ESCO customers and former ESCO customers that remain unbilled or have pending billing adjustments for a Retail Choice discrepancy for months during which they received supply from the ESCO.

2. ESCO Bill Cancellation and Rebilling Procedures 

The Company will create a new billing exception in its billing system by the end of RY1 that identifies accounts billed under an ESCO for which the Company has canceled a customer bill but not issued a revised bill within 10 days of the original cancellation. This exception will route to the supervisor of the employee who performed the bill cancellation. This exception will also be included in the reporting of the first data set on unbilled accounts referenced in provision (1) above. 

Within 120 days of a rate order in these proceedings, the Company also will strengthen training for back-office representatives responsible for account billing and adjustments, stressing the importance of timely cancel/rebills, especially where an account is served by an ESCO. The training will emphasize that bills should not be canceled unless the proper data is available to issue a revised bill.

3. Retail Access System Issues 

The Company will continue to communicate with ESCOs operating in the Company’s service territory when the Company experiences an internal system issue (i.e., an internal system or processing issue which impacts exchange of information or processing of data; excludes issues that affect both ESCO and non-ESCO customers, such as metering and estimated/delayed billing) that impacts ESCO Retail Access transactions. 

1. Within five business days of the Company becoming aware of any internal system issues, it will email a newsletter to all ESCOs and post information on the Company website. This newsletter will contain information – known to the Company at the time of notification – on the scope, scale, and impact of the system issue, to the extent known, and steps the Company has taken or may take to correct the issue and notify customers (if necessary). 
2. To the extent these issues are not resolved within 30 days of the Company becoming aware of such issues, they will be added to a report of outstanding issues. This report will be circulated monthly and will include all open issues, an explanation of progress toward resolution, and expected timing of resolution. Each monthly report will also indicate which issues have been resolved and will therefore be removed from subsequent reports unless, before the issuance of the next report, the Company becomes aware that the issue remains unresolved for one or more ESCOs. The Company intends where practicable to resolve these issues within 120 days of the Company becoming aware of such issues. The Company notes that there may be situations where it is not able to resolve issues within this timeframe. The Company will continue to report on all issues until resolved in the monthly report described above. 
3. To provide a regular forum for ongoing communications, the Company will hold quarterly meetings with ESCOs and other interested stakeholders to discuss, among other things, internal system issues, billing issues, and ongoing and proposed IT changes that will affect retail access and customer billing.
4. Improving Communications and Transparency

The Company will provide regular updates to ESCOs via the Retail Access newsletter that is emailed to all ESCOs and posted on the Company’s website. Day-today communications with ESCOs will continue outside of the newsletter process. The Company will endeavor to respond to simple inquiries – i.e., inquiries that do not require investigation or detailed review – made to retailaccess@coned.com within three business days. If the Company requires additional time to respond to inquiries, the Company will notify the ESCO that additional time is necessary.

5. Annual Electric Marketer Meeting

The Company will hold an annual meeting with ESCOs and other third parties to answer questions on the electric retail choice program. Four weeks before the meeting, the Company will solicit comments, suggestions on topics to be covered, and questions from ESCOs using the Company’s distribution lists for gas and electric ESCOs. The Company will provide a summary of the agenda items discussed at the annual meeting in its newsletter.

6. Updated Reference Materials for CSRs 

The Company will provide annual updated reference materials for CSRs to update them on retail access developments, including changes in rates charged ESCO customers and changes in the Commission’s Uniform Business Practices. The Company will provide communications to remind CSRs of the procedure to follow when ESCO customers call with questions about their bill. ESCOs can at any time reach out to the Company via established channels to provide suggestions for materials or information that should be available to CSRs.

For more specifics review the entire Joint Proposal (JP) contained at the end of the order.

25-E-0072
(Proceeding on Motion of the Commission as to the Rates, Charges, Rules and Regulations of Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. for Electric Service.)

25-G-0073
(Proceeding on Motion of the Commission as to the Rates, Charges, Rules and Regulations of Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. for Gas Service.)