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New Hampshire PUC Approves Initial Phase Of New POR Program
The New Hampshire PUC issued an order approving a settlement agreement and continuing the proceeding to a second phase considering Liberty’s Electric Supplier Services Master Agreement and Electricity Delivery Service Tariff NHPUC No. 21.
“The effective date of the initial POR program will be determined during the second phase of this proceeding. After its commencement of the initial [discount percentage rate], the Company shall make an annual filing with the Commission on or before March 1 of each year following the initial implementation of the Program. Such filings shall include the calculations for the respective DPRs, the reconciliation for the prior period, documentation supporting all relevant calculations, and the payment date for the following 12-month period.”
As background, Proposal by utility Liberty to implement a purchase of receivables (POR) program in its territory. Liberty estimates a six-month timeframe for implementation at an initial cost of $500,000, amortized over three years and recovered through the discount rate. Key elements:
Liberty proposes to make a single monthly payment on the last business day of the calendar month to each participating supplier for all POR customers;
Available to all competitive suppliers that have selected utility consolidated billing;
The discount rate will comprise (1) an Uncollectible Percentage (i.e., actual uncollectible expense data for all customers in the applicable class, for the most recent period for which such data is available, divided by the total amounts billed for the applicable customer class for the same period, including late payment fees, if included in uncollectible expense); (2) an Administrative Cost Percentage (i.e., the cost to implement the POR program and the estimated costs to administer collection efforts), and the Past Period Reconciliation Percentage (i.e., true-up mechanism that reconciles actual and estimated uncollectible and administrative expenses, composed of the prior period reconciliations, by class, reconciling the estimated DPR with the actual uncollectible percentage, and the reconciliation of existing receivables, receivables purchased by the utility before implementation of the POR program);
Ultimately, Liberty intends for two class-specific discount rates to be calculated (one for the Small Customer
Group and one for the Large Customer Group). However, for the first discount rate calculation, the utility is proposing the same rate for both classes until data can be collected for each class to be able to perform a class-specific calculation. Liberty estimates an initial discount rate of 1.542%.
Order Approving Settlement Agreement (08/16/2024)
DE 23-003
Liberty Utilities (Granite State Electric) Corp. d/b/a Liberty – Proposed Purchase of Receivables Program.
