What is the difference between a projection and a promise? The answer might explain a dispute between Central Hudson and the state Consumer Protection Board, which has caused the board to oppose a proposed agreement setting up a rate hike for Central Hudson.
The Consumer Protection Board (CPB) said the utility failed to provide accurate data about its Enhanced Powerful Opportunities Program (EPOP) that helps needy customers during its negotiations for a rate hike agreement, casting doubt on the entire process by which the agreement was reached.
Central Hudson denies wrongdoing and notes it is impossible to know how many customers will sign up for assistance.
In an April 26 letter to the Public Service Commission, which decides on rate hike requests, the CPB officially proclaimed itself against the current “joint proposal” that would grant Central Hudson a rate increase of $40 million phased in over three years, providing the utility an additional $11.8 million in year one, $9.3 million in year two and $9 million in year three as a result of those increases for customers using electricity. The company would generate an additional $5.7 million in revenues in the first year, $2.4 million in year two and $1.6 million in the final year from users of natural gas.
“The information they gave us is bogus.” Said Ariq Niaz, director of utility intervention for the CPB. He said the utility figures put forth early in the process committed the utility to increasing funding to help ratepayers having difficulty paying their bills. That was to be done under the EPOP program, with Central Hudson pledging to increase the number of customers involved from the current 1,000 customers to 1,300 after three years.
Based on that information, the CPB remained neutral when the Public Service Commission announced the preliminary joint agreement was being advanced. However, Niaz said in hearings held in March the CPB learned that Central Hudson would not assist nearly that many customers and, in fact, might end up providing assistance to only some 700 customers. That led the CPB to officially change its stance to oppose the proposed hike.
He said the utility is providing different cost estimates for the program even within its own documents regarding expenses to help a needy customer, saying “their own numbers” range from $1,467 per customer to $2,588 per customer.
Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian said the matter is, in effect, a misunderstanding. Central Hudson was promulgating possibilities as opposed to making commitments when it discussed enrollment figures for its EPOP program, he said.
“It would be impossible to say exactly how many customers could be served,” said Maserjian. “It all depends on how many customers actually enroll and the length of time they stay in the program and the benefits they receive.
He said Central Hudson will in any case devote more money to the program. “Our feeling is the number of customers will rise, but our focus has always been increasing the funding rather than predicting how many customers will actually enroll,” said Maserjian.
