Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission hearing examiner Harry M. Boertzel recommended the denial of the proposed increase in late charge assessed by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to its customers.<\/p>\n
In its June 13 report to the commission, Boertzel specifically endorsed that CUC be directed to continue implementing the current electric service late charge of 1 percent of the past due and the said amount be extended to both wastewater and water services.<\/p>\n
CUC has petitioned the commission to allow the electric service late charge to increase from 1 percent of past due to 10 percent of past due\u2014an amount described by the hearing examiner as unreasonable and should be denied.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed increase in the electric service late charge from 1 percent to 10 percent is unreasonable and should be denied. The existing 1 percent late charge should extended to both wastewater and water service,\u201d the hearing examiner\u2019s report indicated.<\/p>\n
In the analysis provided by the hearing examiner, a late charge provision does not appear in service regulations for either the water or wastewater divisions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe record is unclear whether CUC has been assessing a late charge for water and wastewater services. It is also unclear whether the late charge would be assessed on a customer who has entered into an installment agreement with CUC regarding the payment of account arrearages,\u201d stated the report.<\/p>\n
Boertzel recalled that in a rebuttal from CUC consultant economists.com\u2019s Dan Jackson, the consultant recognized that the proposed late charge increase was a deterrent rather than cost-based and served only as a recommendation given CUC\u2019s findings that the current charge was not working.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Jackson) recognized that the amount of the charge was a regulatory policy call. CGC found the proposed 1,000-percent fee increase to be unconscionable given current economic conditions and that it was also inconsistent with the \u2018just and reasonable\u2019 standard,\u201d the report further indicated.<\/p>\n
Boertzel also recommended the deferral of some non-revenue rate fees petitioned by CUC. These include a proposed new renewable energy fees for installation and annual inspection pending a legal review of whether they are consistent with the requirement of Public Law 15-87.<\/p>\n
Other items for deferral are the CUC\u2019s request to increase the new single-phase service connection fee from $135 to $450 and to establish new fees for the three-phase new service connection and for after-hour new single-phase service connection. He recommended that a study be conducted first to address the concerns raised on these proposals as presented by the CPUC consultant in its tes imony filed on May 17, 2014.<\/p>\n
Meantime, the hearing examiner expressed support to three other non-revenue rate fees as endorsed by CUC. These included the proposed new $550 unauthorized electric service reconnection fee; the proposed new $200 reconnection at the pole fee; and the proposed increase in the investigation fee from $60 to $210, which he described as \u201cnecessary, just, and reasonable,\u201d but is subject to terms and conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission hearing examiner Harry M. Boertzel recommended the denial of the proposed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[915,49,44],"class_list":["post-39753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cpuc","tag-cuc","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}