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2011-2012 Annual Report

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2011-2012 Annual Report Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Sonny Popowsky Consumer Advocate 555 Walnut Street 5th Floor, Forum Place Harrisburg, PA 17101-1923 (717) 783-5048 Office (717) 783-7152 Fax 800-684-6560 (PA Consumers Only) E-mail Address: [email protected] Internet: www.oca.state.pa.us Issued: September 2012 152355 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 ELECTRIC ..................................................................................................................... 4 Pennsylvania ...................................................................................................... 4 Duquesne Light ....................................................................................... 4 FirstEnergy Companies: Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania Electric, Pennsylvania Power, West Penn Power ................................ 5 PECO Energy .......................................................................................... 8 Pike County Light & Power .................................................................... 9 PPL Electric ........................................................................................... 10 Citizens’ Electric and Wellsboro Electric ............................................ 14 UGI Electric …………………………………………………………………...14 Electric Generation Suppliers ……………………………………………. 15 Generic Policy Cases ........................................................................... 15 Steam Cases…………………………………………………………………..21 Federal and Regional ....................................................................................... 21 FERC Electric Cases ............................................................................. 21 PJM ........................................................................................................ 27 NATURAL GAS ........................................................................................................... 30 Pennsylvania .................................................................................................... 30 Columbia Gas ........................................................................................ 30 Equitable Gas ........................................................................................ 31 Peoples Natural Gas .............................................................................. 32 Philadelphia Gas Works ....................................................................... 33 Office of Consumer Advocate Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Page ii __________________________________________________________________________________________________ UGI Companies: UGI Gas, UGI Penn Natural Gas, UGI Central Penn Gas .......................................................................................................... 34 Other Gas Cases ................................................................................... 37 Purchased Gas Cost Proceedings ...................................................... 40 2012 Cases .................................................................................. 42 2011 Cases .................................................................................. 45 Rulemakings and Policy Proceedings .................................................. 47 Federal .............................................................................................................. 48 FERC Gas Cases ................................................................................... 48 TELECOMMUNICATIONS .......................................................................................... 51 Pennsylvania .................................................................................................... 51 Access Charge Proceedings ............................................................... 51 Chapter 30 (Act 183) Related Proceedings ......................................... 55 Additional Telecom Cases ................................................................... 60 Rulemakings ......................................................................................... 70 Consumer Complaint Proceedings ..................................................... 71 Federal .............................................................................................................. 72 FCC Proceedings .................................................................................. 72 WATER AND WASTEWATER .................................................................................... 76 Base Rate Proceedings ................................................................................... 76 Applications, Petitions, and Investigations ................................................... 94 Water and Wastewater-Service Quality and Main Extension Cases ............ 97 CONSUMER AND LEGISLATIVE OUTREACH ........................................................ 100 Testimony, Presentations, and Speaking Engagements ........................... 100 Office of Consumer Advocate Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Page iii __________________________________________________________________________________________________ OCA CALL CENTER ................................................................................................. 106 SERVICE TO PENNSYLVANIA AND THE NATION ................................................. 109 Participation in NASUCA and in Other Consumer Interest Organizations .................................................................................... 109 OCA STAFF ............................................................................................................... 111 INTRODUCTION The Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) has served Pennsylvania utility consumers since its establishment by the General Assembly in 1976. The OCA is a statutorily independent office, administratively included within the Office of Attorney General. On June 29, 1990, the Senate of Pennsylvania confirmed the appointment of Sonny Popowsky as Consumer Advocate, and he has continued to serve in the position since that time. The OCA represents Pennsylvania utility consumers in matters before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) and other state and federal regulatory agencies and courts. The OCA participates before the PUC in all major rate cases, most small rate cases, and many non-rate proceedings that have a significant impact on consumers. OCA also participates in matters before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that have a substantial impact on Pennsylvania consumers. The OCA also participates actively on policy-making committees of non-government organizations such as the PJM Interconnection, whose decisions have a critical impact on electric prices and service in Pennsylvania. Through our consumer education outreach, website, and toll-free call center, the OCA also seeks to ensure that consumers are informed regarding changes in their utility service. In recent years, the OCA has continued to work on proceedings resulting from major state and federal legislative changes impacting utility consumers, such as rulemakings and implementation orders regarding electric and natural gas restructuring, regulatory requirements for basic and advanced telecommunications services, and most recently the issues involving the implementation of Act 11 of 2012, which permits, among other things, a distribution system improvement surcharge for electric, natural gas, and wastewater utilities. The OCA serves as the voice of Pennsylvania utility consumers as the utility industries continue to evolve from a fully regulated to a partially regulated, partially competitive structure. The OCA has evolved as well in order to ensure that Pennsylvania consumers receive the benefits – and avoid the potential harms – that these industry changes bring about. In the electric industry, where rate caps that were put in place to protect Pennsylvania consumers during the transition from regulated to competitive generation markets have come to an end, the OCA has sought to ensure that customers continue to be protected through the development of stable, reasonably priced "default” service. Pursuant to Act 129 of 2008, the OCA continues to work to ensure that Pennsylvania electric utilities provide reliable default generation service to their customers at the lowest cost over time. The OCA continues to be active in Act 129 proceedings to ensure that the energy efficiency, demand response, and advanced metering programs developed by Pennsylvania electric utilities provide the greatest benefit to consumers at the lowest reasonable cost. At the same time, through our website and consumer outreach, OCA has been a leader in educating residential consumers on how to shop Office of Consumer Advocate Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Page 2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ for competitive electric generation services if they choose to do so. Since much of the decision-making that affects Pennsylvania electric consumers now occurs at the federal and regional level, the OCA has expanded its participation in key electric proceedings before the FERC and in the activities of the PJM Interconnection. In recognition of the OCA’s leadership role on these issues, Consumer Advocate Sonny Popowsky was recently named Vice
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