Just wanted to share some good news from Oregon. The PUC issued a ruling last week extending the statute of limitations for systematic billing errors from 2 years to 4 years for investor-owned utilities. This came out of a case involving Portland General Electric where they had been misapplying a commercial rate schedule for over 5 years. The ruling specifically states that 'ongoing systematic errors constitute continuing violations' subject to the longer period.
Oregon PUC just extended statute for billing errors
That's fantastic news Kira! Arizona could really use something like this. APS and SRP both hide behind their 24-month limitation clauses whenever we find long-running errors. Did the Oregon ruling specify what constitutes 'systematic' vs. isolated errors? That distinction could be crucial for other states to reference.
Kira, this is huge. We've been fighting Xcel Energy here in Colorado on exactly this issue. They've been misclassifying one of our client's facilities under Schedule C instead of Schedule I for almost 6 years - difference of about $180K. Xcel keeps saying they'll only go back 2 years per their tariff. I'm definitely citing this Oregon precedent in our next filing.
I'm the other Portland member here and can confirm this ruling is already having impact. PGE settled a case last month for 3.5 years back rather than fight it. The key language in the ruling is that systematic errors show the utility 'knew or should have known' about the misapplication, which tolls the normal limitation period. Carl, you should definitely cite this - the reasoning applies beyond Oregon.
This gives me hope for a PSE case I'm working on up in Seattle. They've been billing a manufacturing client under the wrong schedule since 2013 - over $200K in overcharges. PSE claims their tariff limits adjustments to 24 months, but if I can show this was systematic and ongoing, maybe Washington will follow Oregon's lead. Thanks for sharing this Kira, exactly the kind of precedent we need.