Working a case here in Spokane and Avista is allowing us to go back 6 years on a rate schedule error. Customer was on Schedule 25 instead of Schedule 31 and overpaid about $31,000. I thought Washington state was typically 3 years but their rep says 6 is standard for billing errors. Anyone else experience this with Avista or other Washington utilities?
Avista 6-year recovery - anyone else seeing this?
Boyd, that's interesting. Here in Texas most of our utilities stick to 3-4 years max. Six years is pretty generous. Maybe Washington has different statute rules or Avista has more liberal policies in their tariff. Did you have to argue for the 6 years or did they offer it upfront?
Steve, they offered it without any pushback. The billing analyst said it's standard company policy for rate schedule corrections. I'm wondering if it's because this was clearly their error - customer should have been moved to Schedule 31 when their demand hit 300kW but nobody flagged it. Maybe they're more generous when it's obvious utility fault versus disputed charges.
I've seen similar with Alabama Power. When it's a clear tariff violation on their end, they tend to be more reasonable about lookback periods. Sounds like you hit the jackpot with Avista. That $31K recovery will make your client very happy. Good catch on the demand threshold issue.