Riders are parts of customers bills, sometimes charged to customers for special purposes. In this case, staff reviewed costs associated with “energy efficiency” riders.
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“(DP&L) customers should not be expected to pay for meals that occur during lunch when the meeting could have been held at different times of the day,” PUCO staff also said.
PUCO staff were also critical of certain employee bonuses, sponsorships, baseball ticket purchases, cell phone purchases and other DP&L expenses.
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In total, staff recommended removal of $340,379 from DP&L riders that were charged for two time periods, one from September 2014 through August 2015, and a second for April through December 2016.
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A PUCO spokesman said DP&L will have a chance to comment on the report as will any other “intervening parties” in the case. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel office is an intervening party in the case.
Generally, utility expenses associated with riders are regularly audited, by PUCO staff or a third-party auditor, to ensure “that the costs that they (the utility) are passing on are accurately calculated.”
“After the audit reports, sometimes, the commission will require corrections to those balances,” said the spokesman, Matthew Schilling.
A final outcome will be up to the five-member commission, he said. “They’ll have to take action before anything happens.”
Asked for comment, a DP&L spokeswoman released a statement, saying: “DP&L’s energy efficiency programs have been extremely successful, helping customers save money and use energy wisely. We support the audit process and are willing to work with the Public Utilities Commission.
“As a part of the commission’s due diligence, a thorough review is always conducted on a variety of expenses,” the utility’s statement added. “DP&L believes the expenses were reasonably incurred, and we respect the view of the commission staff.”
The review found fault with several DP&L expenses, including:
Staff discovered that DP&L paid $111,447 in “bonus incentives” to employees in the company’s Energy Efficiency Department. Seventy percent of that amount was paid for meeting company “goals,” which the report said is not permitted. That amount of the $111,447 — $78,013 or 70 percent — should be removed from DP&L’s energy efficiency rider, the report recommended.
Similarly, $82,184 was recommended to be removed from a rider, also for what the report called “financial incentives paid to employees, to be recovered from ratepayers.”
Singled out as well were $1,764 “worth of baseball tickets” to “channel partners” as “awards,” the staff said.
“These awards may provide good will for the company but does not make them appropriate for recovery from customers,” the report said.
Staff recommended that $1,764 be removed from the rider.
Staff also identified $144 charged to a rider for “purchases of cellular phones and accessories.” That amount should be removed, the report said.
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