Dominion Energy here in South Carolina just filed for a storm recovery surcharge following the recent hurricane damage. They're asking for $127.8 million to be recovered over 24 months, which works out to about $8.50 per month for residential customers. The problem is they're including a bunch of vegetation management and system hardening costs that look like routine maintenance to me. Anyone else dealing with post-storm recovery riders that seem padded?
Dominion Energy storm recovery surcharge - legitimate or cash grab?
Marcus, Westar Energy pulled the same thing after the ice storms we had in Kansas last winter. They wanted to recover $43 million for storm restoration but half of it was tree trimming they should have been doing anyway as preventive maintenance. We challenged it and got the surcharge reduced to $28 million. The key is showing that some of those costs would have been incurred regardless of the storm.
Wisconsin Public Service tried to include their entire 2016 vegetation management budget in a storm recovery filing. We're talking about $12 million for routine tree trimming that they do every year. The PSC shot it down immediately. These utilities think ratepayers are idiots who won't notice the padding.
The Pennsylvania PUC has strict guidelines for storm recovery costs. PPL has to separate out incremental storm costs from base maintenance. They also have to show they used reasonable restoration methods - no gold-plating allowed. Maybe South Carolina needs similar rules because what Dominion is proposing sounds excessive.
Duke Energy did something similar in Ohio after the 2012 derecho. They included costs for upgrading equipment to newer standards rather than just replacing what was damaged. The PUCO made them separate out the upgrade costs and recover those through base rates over a longer period. Storm recovery should be about restoration, not system improvements.
Here in Texas, CenterPoint tried to recover hurricane costs that included new smart meters to replace the old mechanical meters that were damaged. We argued that was an upgrade, not restoration. The PUC agreed and disallowed about $23 million of the requested recovery. Always challenge these upgrade costs disguised as storm restoration.
This is all great feedback. I'm seeing exactly what you're describing - Dominion is trying to include system hardening investments that go beyond simple restoration. I'm going to file intervention paperwork and request detailed cost breakdowns. The vegetation management alone accounts for $31 million of their request, which seems way too high for actual storm damage.
Marcus, also check if they're including overtime costs at premium rates. Idaho Power got caught charging weekend and holiday rates for storm restoration work that was performed on regular weekdays. They were basically double-billing for labor costs. It's a common trick that adds millions to recovery requests.
The other thing to watch for is mutual aid costs. When utilities help each other during storms, they charge each other for crew time and equipment. Make sure Dominion isn't trying to recover costs for crews they sent to help other utilities - those should be reimbursed by the receiving utility, not passed through to ratepayers.
Great point Gary. I found $4.7 million in mutual aid costs in their filing. I need to verify whether these are costs Dominion incurred helping others or costs for outside crews helping Dominion. If it's the former, ratepayers shouldn't be on the hook for that.
Marcus, I've been following your case from Memphis. MLGW had a similar issue a few years back after tornado damage. The key is getting access to their work order system to see exactly what work was performed and whether it was truly storm-related versus deferred maintenance. If you need help with discovery requests, let me know. These utilities count on ratepayers not having the expertise to challenge these bloated recovery filings.