Just discovered NYSEG has been billing one of my Rochester clients on secondary rates for the past 14 months despite taking service at 34.5kV. They were supposed to be on Schedule PSC-3 primary but got stuck on PSC-2 secondary somehow. Client overpaid by almost $40,000. Has anyone else seen billing system errors like this with primary vs secondary classification? The utility is being difficult about the refund process.
NYSEG primary service billing error - $40K overcharge
Tom, that's brutal but not uncommon. Had a similar issue with AEP in West Virginia last year. Customer was taking 12.47kV service but getting billed as secondary for 8 months. The key is documenting everything - meter readings, transformer ownership, service voltage records. Did your client sign a primary service agreement initially?
Yes, they have the signed primary service agreement and all interconnection docs. NYSEG is claiming their billing system automatically defaults to secondary rates until manual override. But that override apparently never happened despite having all the paperwork. I'm pushing for interest on the overpayment too.
Good call on the interest. In WV, AEP ended up paying interest at their tariff rate - something like 1.5% per month. Also check if NYSEG has any billing error procedures in their tariff. Some utilities have specific timelines they have to follow for corrections and refunds.
I'm dealing with something similar with Consumers Energy here in Michigan. Customer taking primary service at 4.8kV but billing shows secondary transformer charges. Their explanation was that the customer owns the transformer so it should be secondary rates. Makes no sense - voltage level determines primary vs secondary, not transformer ownership.
Update on my Consumers Energy situation - finally got it resolved by escalating to their regulatory affairs department. They admitted the billing system had the wrong service classification code. Took 6 weeks but client got full refund plus interest. Sometimes you have to go above customer service to get results.