Consumers Council of Missouri

What kind of refund should customers receive when they suffer through power outages that last for days at a time?  Amazingly, there remains a controversy within the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) about whether to order any credits to such customers.  As for the AmerenUE and the other regulated electric utilities, they are pulling out all the stops to lobby the MoPSC against rate relief to customers that are inconvenienced by long storm outages. 

Last week, a strongly divided commission voted 3-2 to simply consider the adoption of rules that include credit provisions, and then sent the proposed rules to the Department of Economic Development for its political consideration.  Ultimately, the rules will be published and then public comment can take place formally.  The issue is far from being ultimately decided because one or more commissioner may yet change their minds prior to adoption of the final rule.

The Consumers Council of Missouri is pleased that at least a majority of the MoPSC is moving forward with some recognition of the inconvenience that customers suffer suring the kind of long outages that the St. Louis area experienced twice last year.  However, the current proposal is weak compared with the credits granted to consumers in other states.  Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE) voluntarily grants a $25 credit for each day after 48 hours of an outage (up to a maximum of $100)—no matter the reason for the outage.  The 48-hour mark recognizes the fact that 2 days is a reasonable threshold for being out of power, even after a major storm. 

By comparison, the MoPSC is proposing that there be only a one-time credit of $25 and only after 120 hours (5 days) in case of a major event (i.e., storm outage).  There are proposing a one-time credit of $25 if your power is not restored within 16 hours, if the interruption occurred “under normal conditions”.

Here is the wording of the PSC’s relevant portions of the rule dealing with customer credits:

Unless an electrical corporation requests a waiver pursuant to (§_____) of these rules, an electrical corporation that fails to restore service to a customer within 120 hours after an interruption that occurred during the course of a major event shall provide to any affected customer a bill credit on the customer’s next bill.  The amount of the credit provided to a residential customer shall be the greater of $25.00 or the customer’s monthly customer charge. 

Unless an electrical corporation request a waiver pursuant to _____ of these rules, an electrical corporation that fails to restore service to a customer within 16 hours after an interruption that occurred during normal conditions shall provide to any affected customer that notifies the electrical corporation of the interruption a bill credit on the customer’s next bill.  The amount of the credit provided to a residential customer shall be the greater of $25.00 or the customer’s monthly customer charge.  The amount of the credit provided to any other distribution customer shall be the customer’s minimum bill prorated on a daily basis.

Many customers were forced to throw out everything in their refrigerators twice last year.  And those that couldn’t survive without heat or air conditioning had to search out extraordinarily costly alternatives, such as finding hotel rooms many miles away or purchase gasoline-powered generators.  The average AmerenUE customer who was out of power for periods lasting longer than 48 hours during the 2006 outages suffered expenses that far exceeded $25.

The Consumers Council of Missouri is shocked that AmerenUE has not decided to implement any voluntary program that would be similar to what PGE and other electric utilities have offered to their customers.  It would be a nice gesture to let consumers know that AmerenUE was putting its money where its mouth is as far as ensuring reliable service, and could help to improve that company’s image.  It might even serve as an incentive to finding the best ways to improve its system and avoid the disastrous outages of 2006.

Of course, AmerenUE is the company that chose to give its top executives bonuses as a result of the “good job” that they did during the storm outages last year.

Here is a link to a newspaper article about the action that the MoPSC has recently taken on customer credits—

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1236729.html 

Informal comments can be sent to MoPSC Chairman Jeff Davis at the Public Service Commission, P.O. Box 360, Jefferson City MO 65102.  Reference “Customers credits for storm outages”.

Comments may also be submitted electronically at—

https://www.efis.psc.mo.gov/mpsc/Comments.html