HARRISBURG, Pa. — Editor's note: The attached video is from Jan. 31, 2023.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is seeking public comment from customers of PPL Electric Utilities about a proposed settlement that was sparked by consumer billing issues throughout 2023.
The settlement, which was proposed by the PUC's independent Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement (I&E) and PPL, includes a $1 million civil penalty and PPL's agreement to absorb more than $16 million in related costs.
The commission voted 5-0 on Thursday to publish the proposed settlement in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which will begin the start of a 25-day public comment period regarding the settlement.
Full instructions for submitting a public comment are expected to be provided when the proposed settlement is published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
The Commission alleges it will carefully review all comments received before issuing a final decision in the case.
In early 2023, the PUC launched an investigation into billing issues impacting PPL customers in response to a large number of consumer calls and complaints regarding unusually high or low estimated bills, missing monthly payments and a lack of adequate customer service.
Based on data obtained from PPL during I&E’s investigation, the billing issues originated in Dec. 2022, when PPL discovered that customer meter data was not transferred from the utility’s meter data management software to their customer service system.
The inability to transfer actual meter data backed up normal customer billing operations and resulted in sending estimated Dec. 2022 bills, according to the PUC.
According to the proposed joint settlement, more than 48,000 PPL accounts received no bills during one or more months between the Dec. 2022 and April 2023 billing periods. During that period, more than 91,000 unique PPL accounts reportedly received no bills.
Additionally, between Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023, nearly 795,000 estimated bills were issued by PPL, and a total of more than 860,000 estimated bills were issued between Dec. 2022 and May 2023.
An analysis of estimated bills issued by PPL revealed that 67.31% (261,104 customers) of the bills had an estimate differing from the customer’s actual usage of 10% or greater.
Of these bills, one-third indicated an estimate that varied from the actual by more than 25%. And nearly 48,000 customer bills were based on an estimate differing from actual usage by more than 50%.
Further, over 82,000 estimated bills were impacted by missing or inaccurate supply charges, resulting in a process where PPL canceled the initial estimated bills and rebilled accounts to correct errors, generating consumer confusion and creating a complicated tangle of bills that took months to unravel.
Finally, customers who attempted to contact PPL about billing issues were faced with extremely long wait times or were unable to reach the utility at all. Call center data from the period between January and April 2023 showed that 41% of calls to PPL were abandoned without customers being able to reach a representative.