Just closed a big win against Omaha Public Power District. Discovered they were charging franchise fees as a separate line item AND embedding them in their base distribution rate. Client had been paying double franchise fees for 22 months - we recovered $8,400 plus interest. OPPD tried to claim it was proper billing but their own tariff proved otherwise. Anyone else dealt with Nebraska municipal utilities pulling this double-billing scam?
OPPD franchise fees embedded twice - $8,400 recovery!
Nancy, that's exactly what we found with Santee Cooper here in South Carolina. They were recovering franchise costs through their base rate AND adding a separate 'municipal services charge.' Took eight months to get them to admit the error and pay refunds. These municipal utilities think they can get away with anything.
Great work Nancy! Municipal utilities are the worst for this kind of billing fraud. They don't have the same oversight as investor-owned utilities so they think they can make up charges. We need to hit them hard every time we catch this double-dipping nonsense.
The frustrating part was OPPD's attitude - they acted like we were being unreasonable for questioning their billing. Took threatening legal action before they would even review the account. Municipal utilities need the same level of scrutiny as investor-owned companies.
Municipal utilities definitely think they're above accountability. Had similar issues with Harrisburg's electric utility - they were adding 'administrative fees' that were already built into their rates. Sometimes you have to threaten legal action to get their attention.
Nancy, did you have to file with the Nebraska Power Review Board or handle it directly with OPPD? Rochester Gas & Electric tried similar double-billing and we had to go through the PSC to get resolution. Municipal utilities hate outside oversight but sometimes it's the only way.