Did Laclede Gas Break the Rules?
By Jeffrey Tomich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Feb. 4–The Missouri Public Service Commission staff says Laclede Gas Co. violated rules for estimating natural gas bills in and around St. Louis, potentially exacerbating already-high winter heating bills.
The allegation is part of a complaint against Laclede filed Thursday that asks regulators to sue Laclede for its estimated billing practices. Separately, the staff claims that the utility failed to quickly investigate potential safety hazards.
“There were instances where they had gone for years without getting an actual reading,” said Gay Fred, the PSC’s consumer-services manager.
Laclede, which serves 630,000 customers, has yet to file a response, but disputes the claims.
“We don’t believe we’ve violated any of the commission’s regulations,” said spokesman George Csolak.
The complaint cites 115 examples of Laclede not following commission regulations concerning estimated bills. Fred and commission General Counsel Kevin Thompson declined to speculate whether the practice was more widespread.
The complaint said Laclede overestimated gas usage in some cases, meaning customers get a refund. In other instances, the utility underestimated usage, exposing customers to larger bills that could cause hardships for customers already coping with record winter heating costs.
Laclede estimates the gas usage for its 240,000 customers with indoor meters if employees can’t get access to take physical readings, Csolak said. State regulations require the utility to obtain an actual reading at least once a year, and to notify customers that their bills are based on estimated usage.
Laclede, according to the complaint, failed to notify some customers that they could read their own indoor gas meters and self-report the usage.
The commission staff also accused Laclede of failing to act quickly enough to investigate nine instances of gas continuing to flow to homes or businesses in St. Louis, even though service was supposedly shut off. That posed a safety hazard.
The staff of the PSC advises the commission, but doesn’t have the authority to regulate utilities or enforce rules. Laclede will be given time to answer the complaint, and perhaps negotiate a settlement, before the case is heard by the five-member commission.
The complaint asks the commission to require Laclede to address problems with estimated bills and give customers who owe money because of underestimated bills additional time to pay them. It also seeks commission approval to seek penalties in court.
The filing against Laclede was the product of an investigation of customer complaints, Fred said. From Dec. 28, 2004, to Jan. 16, the PSC received more than 500 complaints about Laclede’s estimated bills, she said.
Laclede said estimated bills are becoming less of an issue and won’t be necessary in the future when it completes the installation of automated meter-reading devices for all of its customers.
The utility in March announced plans to outsource meter reading to Cellnet Technology Inc. for 15 years. Cellnet is in the midst of installing electronic devices on gas meters and will operate and maintain the system.
So far, about 215,000 of the devices have been installed, Csolak said.
—–
To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
LG,