Public Service Commission audit sought by Pulver

POUGHKEEPSIE — Dutchess County Comptroller A. Gregg Pulver filed an audit request of the New York Department of Public Service Commission Thursday, Aug. 15.

Pulver sent the letter to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli over concerns about recent rate hikes by electric and gas utility provider Central Hudson. Pulver said the utility has practiced bad corporate citizenship by hiking rates and refusing to address problems in its billing department despite soaring corporate profits.

As of Friday, Aug. 23, the state comptroller’s office has not responded to Pulver’s audit request. “Tom DiNapoli is very responsive to needs, I’m sure we will hear something shortly,” Pulver said.

Pulver’s concerns center around the approval process for the rate increase. He said he wants more information about how exactly the PSC balances customer concerns with the financial materials supplied by Central Hudson.

The PSC requires utilities in New York to file regular rate plan approvals. That process takes 10 to 12 months to complete. “It was a litigated case,” Central Hudson Director of Media Relations Joe Jenkins said. “Which means it was essentially put on trial.”

During that process, interested parties, industry experts, employees of Central Hudson and concerned customers give their testimony and recommendations to the PSC. In this case, the Office of Investigations and Enforcement conducted an investigation of Central Hudson’s billing issues and PA Consulting was hired as an independent monitor to verify Central Hudson had rectified the issues and to make further recommendations to the PSC.

After that deliberative process, the PSC issued a rate plan that allowed the utility to increase revenues from electric by 5.5% and from gas by 7.3%. The average customer would see an approximate $12 increase on electric bills and a $9 increase on gas as a result.

Pulver also raised concerns over Central Hudson’s billing practices. “People were getting billed for three or four or five times what they used to do,” Pulver said. “It was an atrocious time.”

Jenkins said Central Hudson has ironed out these issues. In July PA Consulting, the independent monitor hired by the PSC, issued a report stating Central Hudson had resolved its billing issues and that bills were accurate moving forward.

As part of the approved rate plan, the PSC mandated Central Hudson must make recommended investments in billing and customer service, including implementing monthly meter readings, and that ratepayer funds could not be used to pay for those investments.