Utility companies to bill customers for lost revenues due to storm!

Legalized plunder at its most obvious.

WASHINGTON (PNN) - July 13, 2012 - Some of you will see an extra charge in your next electric bill because utility companies Pepco and BGE lost money when they couldn't charge customers to deliver power during the recent storm outage.

"The storm adjustment kicks in automatically," said Maryland Public Service Commission spokeswoman Regina Davis. "The BSA (Bill Stabilization Adjustment) is calculated and applied by the companies, but checked by PSC staff and we make the utilities correct it if they get it wrong."

"Not good. Not good at all, that's not a good thing," said Maryland power customer Alice Jenkins "I must call Pepco and ask them about that."

"It's the law," said Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey. "It's called bill stabilization."

Hainey refused further comment when he realized he was on the record.

BGE officials also couldn't explain what individual customers would see on their bills.

"I think what you're saying is accurate," said BGE spokesman Rob Gould. "I'm not sure how it applies to BGE customers."

Maryland People's Counsel attorney Theresa Czarski said the billings would amount to a tiny portion of the utilities' revenues and are intended to offset storm losses.

By statute, the People's Chief is an independent agency that acts as advocate for residential utility customers.

"They will be compensated up to a fashion" said Czarski. "They won't take a dramatic hit for this month for not collecting this. The hit is smaller to them for not collecting those revenues."

Czarski said the average customer would likely see a charge of less than a dollar for the adjustment.

"It's unfair," said Maryland power customer Marie Bernes. " I don't have anything else to say."

"They're getting paid when regular citizens are losing out," said Maryland power customer Brian Barrett. "I wasn't aware of that. I think that's pretty unfair."

Maryland officials say utilities are limited to recouping lost billings from the first 24 hours of the outage only, and that when spread across the utilities' customer base, that could be less than a dollar for the utility's average user.

"As a result of a Maryland Commission order issued in January 2012, PGE and Pepco cannot collect any lost revenues resulting loss of power during a major storm, except for revenues lost during the first 24 hours after the beginning of the storm," said Maryland People’s Chief Paula Carmody.

Officials in the District and Virginia say the utilities cannot charge customers for lost billings there - so this is unique to Maryland customers.

In 2010, Pepco recouped nearly $1.4 million for one storm alone, but since the state limited adjustments to the first 24 hours, officials say, it is likely to be less.

Neither BGE nor Pepco would explain how it would appear on customer’s bills, but a state official said it would be rolled into the customer's delivery fee - without a line item identifying the charge - so many people won't even know that they're be charged for it.