Just finished an audit for a manufacturing client in Indianapolis and found IPL had them on Schedule A-32 TOU but was applying summer peak hours year-round. Client was being charged peak rates during 1-6 PM in January through March when off-peak should have applied. Eight months of overbilling totaling $47,000. Anyone else seeing IPL make this mistake with their TOU schedules? The tariff is crystal clear that summer peak is June 1 through September 30 only.
IPL TOU Schedule A-32 Applied Wrong for 8 Months
Greg, I've seen similar issues with Oncor down here in Dallas but not IPL specifically. Sounds like a billing system programming error where they didn't update the seasonal windows properly. Did you check if other TOU customers were affected? This could be a class action situation if it's systemic.
We had Seattle City Light do something similar back in 2009 with their Schedule 31 TOU rates. Turned out their billing vendor updated peak hour definitions but forgot to implement the seasonal changeover dates. Affected about 200 commercial customers before someone caught it. IPL probably uses a similar system.
Greg - definitely check their interval data files. If the meter was reading correctly but billing applied wrong rate periods, you should see the consumption data tagged with incorrect TOU periods in their MDM system. Ameren here in St. Louis had a similar glitch in 2011.
Thanks everyone. Pam, good call on the interval data - I pulled the 15-minute files and sure enough, the consumption is correct but the rate period assignments were wrong. IPL is being cooperative about the refund at least. Marcus, I'm checking with a few other clients on A-32 to see if this was widespread.
This is exactly why I always run seasonal TOU validation checks during audits. Rocky Mountain Power here in Utah had a notorious problem with their Schedule 6 TOU rates not switching properly between summer and winter windows. Simple spreadsheet formula can catch these errors quickly.
Connie makes a great point about validation checks. APS here in Phoenix has complex TOU schedules with different peak periods for different months. I've built automated scripts that flag any discrepancies between billed TOU periods and published tariff schedules. Saved me hundreds of hours.