Working on an Ameren Missouri audit for a Springfield client and thought I found $23,000 in fuel adjustment overcharges. Spent a week building my case only to discover there's a separate Rider FAC that modifies how fuel costs are calculated for certain customer classes. The rider was approved six months into my audit period and completely changed the billing methodology. I looked foolish questioning charges that were perfectly legitimate under the rider provisions. Does anyone actually read ALL the rider tariffs before starting an audit, or do we all learn the hard way?
Anyone else get burned by not reading rider tariffs?
Elmer, riders are the bane of my existence. Ohio Edison has about 47 different riders and they change constantly. I missed Rider DSE2 (Demand Side Management) on a client audit last year - it added charges I thought were billing errors. Now I keep a spreadsheet of all active riders by utility and check for updates monthly. The base tariff is just the starting point.
Duke Energy here in Charlotte loves their riders too. Rider PFF, Rider REPS, Rider ECR - it's like alphabet soup. I learned to always request a complete list of applicable riders from the utility before starting any audit. Customer service can usually provide this if you give them the account number and rate schedule. Saves a lot of embarrassment later when you find phantom billing errors that are actually legitimate rider charges.