I'm auditing a textile manufacturer in Huntsville and found an interesting issue with TVA's Schedule MSB TOU rates. The customer was being billed summer peak rates (June-September) during October 2015, but the tariff clearly states summer period ends September 30. TVA initially claimed it was a 'calendar adjustment' but that makes no sense. Total impact was $12,400 in overcharges. Anyone else seen TVA extend their summer TOU periods incorrectly?
TVA TOU Schedule MSB - Seasonal Window Error
Albert, I haven't seen that specific issue with TVA but we had Oklahoma Gas & Electric do something similar where they extended winter peak periods into April when the tariff clearly ended winter rates March 31. Turned out to be a billing system configuration error.
Ed's right about billing system errors. I've seen Ameren Missouri occasionally have seasonal TOU transition problems, usually around the spring/summer changeover. The issue is their systems are programmed by calendar days rather than billing cycles.
Albert, what did TVA say when you showed them the tariff language? Rocky Mountain Power here in Utah has been pretty good about acknowledging these errors when you can document them clearly with tariff excerpts and billing comparisons.
Connie, TVA initially pushed back claiming their billing was correct, but when I provided a side-by-side comparison of the tariff language versus the actual billing, they agreed to investigate. Took about six weeks but they eventually issued a credit with interest.
Albert, glad you got resolution. OG&E here in Oklahoma City has been much better about seasonal TOU transitions since they upgraded their billing system in 2014. Before that we saw regular errors around the summer/winter changeover dates.
Susan, that's good to hear about OG&E improvements. I'm wondering if TVA's issue was related to their system upgrade too. They migrated to a new billing platform in 2015 and there may have been some configuration errors during the transition.
System upgrades definitely cause these problems. Entergy had a nightmare transition in 2013 where TOU seasonal dates were completely scrambled for about three months. Took a class action complaint to the Louisiana PSC to get it sorted out.
Juan, wow that sounds like a major mess. Thankfully TVA's issue seems to have been limited to just the October 2015 billing period. I've checked several other MSB customers and haven't found similar errors in other months.
Albert, you might want to double-check their spring transition dates too. Sometimes these billing system errors affect both seasonal changeovers. I found similar issues with TXU Energy where both spring and fall TOU transitions were off by a few days.
Marcus, good suggestion. I went back and checked March/April 2016 transition and found TVA applied winter rates through April 3rd instead of ending March 31st. Another $3,200 in overcharges. Seems like they have a systematic issue with seasonal TOU transitions.
Albert, this sounds like a bigger problem than just one customer. You might want to reach out to other auditors working in TVA territory to see if this is affecting multiple accounts. Could be grounds for a regulatory complaint.
David, I've contacted three other auditors in Tennessee and Alabama and they're checking their TVA TOU accounts. So far one has found similar seasonal transition errors. We're documenting everything before approaching TVA with a broader complaint.
Albert, any final update on this? I'm curious whether TVA acknowledged the systematic nature of the problem or treated each case individually.