Found an interesting case with Portland General Electric last month. Large manufacturing client in Beaverton was getting billed for transmission charges on both their primary service and their backup generator interconnection. Turns out PGE's billing system was double-charging transmission for the same load during generator maintenance periods. Recovered $34,500 over 14 months of incorrect billing. The error was in Schedule 85 implementation. Anyone else seeing transmission billing errors with backup generation?
PGE Oregon - caught them double billing transmission charges
Interesting find Beatrice! Down here in Virginia with Dominion Energy we've had some similar issues with backup generation billing, but usually it's demand charge problems rather than transmission. Did PGE acknowledge the error quickly or did they push back? Backup generation billing seems to be a weak spot for many utilities since the configurations can be complex.
Nice catch! PG&E here in California has had some transmission billing quirks with distributed generation setups. The backup generator interconnection rules are getting more complex and billing systems haven't always kept up. Did the client have automatic transfer switch issues or was this purely a billing system error? $34K is a solid recovery for what sounds like a relatively straightforward fix.
Faye and Pete - PGE actually acknowledged the error pretty quickly once I showed them the meter data and interconnection agreements. The problem was their billing system treated the backup generator circuit as a separate service point for transmission charges even though it was clearly documented as emergency backup only. No transfer switch issues, just poor system logic. The client never used the generator during peak transmission hours anyway.
Good work Beatrice! We see similar backup generation billing issues with MLGW here in Memphis, though usually on a smaller scale. The key is understanding how the utility's billing system interprets multiple meter configurations. Your documentation approach sounds solid - having the interconnection agreements readily available probably made all the difference in getting PGE to acknowledge the error quickly. These transmission charge mistakes can add up fast.