PROPOSED RULEMAKING
PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION
[52 PA. CODE CH. 62]
[30 Pa.B. 893] [L-00000147]
Reporting Requirements for Quality of Gas Service Benchmarks and Standards The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (Commission) on January 12, 2000, adopted a proposed rulemaking order establishing uniform measures and standard data reporting requirements for natural gas distribution companies (NGDCs). The contact persons are M.J. (Holly) Frymoyer, Bureau of Consumer Services (technical), (717) 783-1628, and Rhonda Daviston, Law Bureau (legal) (717) 787-6166.
Executive Summary
On June 22, 1999, Governor Tom Ridge signed into law 66 Pa.C.S. Chapter 22 (relating to Natural Gas Choice and Competition Act) (act). Section 2206(a) of the act (relating to consumer protections and customer service) requires that customer services shall, at a minimum, be maintained at the same level of quality under retail competition as in existence on June 22, 1999. The purpose of this proposed rulemaking is to establish uniform measures and reporting requirements to allow the Commission to monitor the level of the NGDCs' customer service performance. Using the statistics collected under this rulemaking, the Commission will annually prepare a summary report on the customer service performance of the covered NGDCs. The reports will be public information.
Public Meeting held
January 12, 2000Commissioners Present: John M. Quain, Chairperson; Robert K. Bloom, Vice-Chairperson; Nora Mead Brownell; Aaron Wilson, Jr.; and Terrance J. Fitzpatrick
Proposed Rulemaking Order By the Commission:
On June 22, 1999, Governor Tom Ridge signed into law the act. The act revised the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § 101 et seq. by inter alia, adding Chapter 22, relating to restructuring of the natural gas utility industry. Under section 2206(a) of the act, customer services shall, at a minimum, be maintained at the same level of quality under retail competition. The act is clear that customer service for retail gas customers is, at a minimum, to be maintained at the same level of quality under retail competition as in existence on June 22, 1999. The Commission is the agency charged with implementing the act.
The proposed regulations set forth uniform measures and standard data reporting requirements for various components of NGDC's customer service performance and establish effective dates for the reporting requirements. Thus the elements addressed by this rulemaking are presented to allow the Commission to ensure that the customer service of Pennsylvania's NGDCs remains at an adequate level. The reporting requirements will provide the Commission with the necessary measurement data to monitor the performance of the NGDCs. As a result of the data produced, the Commission will be aware of and able to investigate deterioration in company performance and direct remedial action on the part of the company. After the Commission receives adequate measurement data from the NGDCs, it will embark on a separate proceeding to establish performance benchmarks and standards for the NGDCs.
This proposed rulemaking addresses various components of customer service including telephone access, billing frequency, meter reading, timely response to customer disputes, the proper response to customer disputes and payment arrangement requests, compliance with customer service rules and regulations, and serving customers in a prompt, courteous and satisfactory manner. These components are interrelated and are important aspects of NGDC customer service. In addition, we believe that these components are fair indicators of the quality of an NGDC's service to customers. Finally, the proposed reporting requirements correspond to the Chapter 54, Subchapter F (relating to reporting requirements for quality of service benchmarks and standards) that pertain to the electric distribution companies.
The proposed rulemaking includes three measures of telephone access to a company: the percent of calls answered at each NGDC's call center in 30 seconds, the average busy-out rate for each call center and the call abandonment rate for each call center. These three measures are designed to give a total picture of telephone access to the company. It has been our experience that many utilities already use these measures to monitor customer access to their company's call centers. Many have this information available daily and use it for their own analysis and work plans. We note that in the electric industry, with a few minor adjustments, the major EDCs have been able to provide the Commission with these statistics.
The other measures presented in the proposed requirements are directly related to Chapter 56 (relating to standards and billing practices for residential utility service), and should not require further data collection by the NGDCs. The use of available data should serve to alleviate concerns that the NGDCs may have about the reporting requirements causing financial burdens. We propose that the NGDCs report to the Commission the number of customer disputes, as defined in § 56.2 (relating to definitions), for which the NGDC did not render a utility report within 30 days of the filing of the dispute as required by § 56.151(5) (relating to general rule). Since § 56.202 (relating to record maintenance) requires utilities to preserve records of all customer disputes and complaints, this information should be available. We believe this statistic is preferable to a simple tally of the total number of customer complaints because it will indicate instances in which the NGDC has not complied with the customer service regulations by not responding promptly to a customer's complaint. A complaint or dispute filed with a company is not necessarily a negative indicator of service quality. However, a company's timely response to a complaint is an important measure of customer service quality.
Similarly, to measure metering performance, we propose that the NGDCs report information under § 56.12(4)(ii) and (iii) and (5)(i) (relating to meter reading). We believe that these regulations represent the minimal criteria of meter reading performance. Again, the use of reporting related to Chapter 56 mitigates any additional financial burdens on the NGDCs. The Commission's experience is that lack of meter readings generates a large number of complaints from residential customers and thus we propose including this as a measure of customer service quality. The Chapter 56 regulations require one company or customer-supplied reading within a 6-month period and an actual (company) reading at least once every 12 months. We believe that these minimum requirements should be met and therefore have included them in the reporting requirements.
To measure the quality of an NGDC's interactions with its customers, we propose a transaction survey of customers who have had recent dealings with that company. Each NGDC would survey a sample of customers who have had an interaction with one of its representatives. We are proposing that each NGDC use the same survey questionnaire and sampling methodology in order to produce uniform results for each company. The survey would contain questions to measure the promptness by which the NGDC responded to the customer's request and the NGDC's timeliness of the response or visit. The surveys are also to include questions to measure satisfaction with the company's handling of the interaction.
We invite comments on how we can best achieve uniformity among the NGDCs regarding the transaction survey. The electric distribution companies formed a working group that was very successful at working out the details of the transaction surveys in a collaborative fashion. We would propose a similar working group for the gas companies. We would also appreciate comments regarding the mail survey that we propose for the NGDCs with fewer than 100,000 residential accounts.
Finally, we propose measuring the complaint handling performance of the largest NGDCs by using justified consumer complaint rate, justified payment arrangement request rate, the number of informally verified infractions and infraction rate. Under § 56.211, the Bureau of Consumer Services (BCS) has established procedures for handling consumer disputes and payment arrangement requests as well as rules for determining on a case-by-case basis whether or not a customer is ''justified'' in coming to the Commission. ''Justified'' informal consumer complaints and payment arrangement requests are those cases in which, in the judgment of the BCS, the company did not comply with Commission regulations, reports, Secretarial Letters, tariffs or guidelines prior to BCS intervention. For the past number of years, the BCS has calculated and reported these rates in its annual report; thus the NGDCs are familiar with them and what they represent.
Regarding infractions and the infraction rate, the Commission has procedures to ensure that NGDCs and other public utilities conform to the standards of conduct for residential service established by statute and regulation. Through informal consumer complaints and payment arrangement requests the Commission is able to identify, document and notify utilities of instances where the utilities have violated a particular section of the regulations. The BCS tallies the number of informally verified infractions and reports them annually to the Commission. Beginning in 1997, the BCS has also calculated an infraction rate that compares a utility's number of infractions with its number of residential customers. We believe that an NGDC's commitment to compliance with rules and regulations is an important indicator of good service quality to customers. Thus, we have proposed that the BCS report the number of infractions and the infraction rate as measures of NGDC customer performance.
The Commission reserves the right to waive the requirements of these regulations upon petition by an affected party under § 5.43 (relating to petitions for issuance, amendment, waiver or repeal of regulations).
Accordingly, under section 501 of the code (relating to general powers), and the act of July 31, 1968 (P. L. 769, No. 240) (45 P. S. § 1201 et seq.) and regulations promulgated thereunder in 1 Pa. Code §§ 7.1--7.4, we propose to amend our regulations by adding §§ 62.31--62.37 and, we shall institute a rulemaking proceeding to accomplish the objective described in the body of this order. Therefore,
It Is Ordered That:
1. A rulemaking docket shall be opened to consider the regulations set forth in Annex A.
2. The Secretary shall submit a copy of this order and Annex A to the Office of Attorney General for review as to form and legality.
3. The Secretary shall submit a copy of this order and Annex A to the Governor's Budget Office for review of fiscal impact.
4. The Secretary shall submit this proposed rulemaking order and Annex A for review by the designated standing committees of both Houses of the General Assembly, and for review and comments by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.
5. The Secretary shall certify this order and Annex A and deposit them with the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
6. A copy of this proposed rulemaking order and any accompanying statements of the Commissioners be served upon all jurisdictional gas companies, the Office of Consumer Advocate, the Office of Small Business Advocate and all parties to this proceeding.
7. Within 30 days of this order's publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, an original and 15 copies of any comments concerning this order and Annex A should be submitted to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Attention: Secretary, P. O. Box 3265, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3265.
By the Commission
JAMES J. MCNULTY,
SecretaryFiscal Note: 57-213. No fiscal impact; (8) recommends adoption.
Annex A
TITLE 52. PUBLIC UTILITIES
PART I. PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION
Subpart C. FIXED SERVICE UTILITIES
CHAPTER 62. NATURAL GAS SUPPLY CUSTOMER CHOICE
Subchapter B. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR QUALITY OF SERVICE BENCHMARKS AND STANDARDS Sec.
62.31. Purpose. 62.32. Definitions. 62.33. Reporting requirements. 62.34. Customer surveys. 62.35. NGDCs with fewer than 100,000 residential accounts. 62.36 Informal complaints to the BCS. 62.37. Public information. § 62.31. Purpose.
This subchapter establishes a means by which the Commission can develop uniform measurement and reporting to assure that the customer services of the NGDCs are maintained, at a minimum, at the same level of quality under retail competition. This subchapter sets forth uniform measurements and reporting requirements for monitoring the level of the NGDCs' customer service performance. This subchapter also establishes the effective dates of the reporting requirements.
§ 62.32. Definitions.
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
BCS--The Bureau of Consumer Services of the Commission.
Busy-out rate--The number of calls to an NGDC's call center or business office that received a busy signal divided by the number of calls that were received.
Call center--A centralized facility established by a utility for transactions concerning installation and repair of service, billing and other inquiries between residential and small commercial customers and NGDC representatives, but not including special purpose call centers established to respond to service emergencies and operating for a temporary period of time.
Call abandonment rate--The number of calls to an NGDC's call center or business office that were abandoned divided by the total number of calls received at the NGDC's telephone call center or business office.
Customer--A retail gas customer as defined in 66 Pa.C.S. § 2202 (relating to definitions).
Informal consumer complaint--An appeal by a consumer to the BCS about a utility's proposed resolution of a dispute related to billing, service delivery, repairs and all other issues not related to requests for payment arrangements.
Informally verified infraction--An apparent misapplication of Commission regulations as determined by the BCS through its examination of information obtained as part of its review of informal consumer complaints and payment arrangement requests.
(i) The informal verification process implemented by the BCS notifies a utility of the information which forms the basis of an alleged infraction, affords the utility the opportunity to affirm or deny the accuracy of the information and concludes with a BCS determination regarding the alleged infraction.
(ii) An informally verified infraction is not equivalent to a formal violation under 66 Pa.C.S. § 3301 (relating to civil penalties for violations) unless otherwise determined through applicable Commission procedures.
Infraction--A misapplication of a Commission regulation, particularly the standards and billing practices for residential service.
Infraction rate--The number of informally verified infractions per 1,000 residential customers.
Justified informal consumer complaint--A complaint where the BCS has determined that an NGDC did not follow Commission procedures or regulations.
Justified informal consumer complaint rate--The number of justified informal, residential consumer complaints per 1,000 residential customers.
Justified payment arrangement request--A payment arrangement request when an NGDC did not follow Commission negotiation procedures or regulations.
Justified payment arrangement request rate--The number of justified payment arrangement requests from residential customers per 1,000 residential customers.
Payment arrangement request--A customer request for payment terms to the BCS.
Small business customer--A person, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, association or other business whose annual gas consumption does not exceed 300 mcfs.
Transaction survey--
(i) A survey targeted toward individuals that have had a recent interaction with an NGDC.
(ii) An interaction could include:
(A) Filing a complaint.
(B) Inquiring or disputing a bill.
(C) Seeking to have a repair completed.
(D) Applying for service.
(E) Requesting service installation.
(F) Reporting a safety concern.
(G) Reporting a reliability or other service problem.
(H) Arranging an appointment for a premise visit.
§ 62.33. Reporting requirements.
(a) Report deadlines.
(1) Unless otherwise specified in this subchapter, each covered NGDC shall file its first report with the Commission on or before August 1, 2001. The August report shall contain data, reported by month, from the first 6 months of the calendar year, as well as a 6-month cumulative average.
(2) Each NGDC shall file its second report on or before February 1, 2002. The February report shall contain data, reported by month, from the second 6 months of the year as well as a 6-month cumulative average and a 12-month cumulative average for the preceding calendar year.
(3) Thereafter, the NGDCs shall file reports annually with the Secretary of the Commission on or before February 1.
(4) Each report shall contain data, reported by month, as well as a 12-month cumulative average for the preceding calendar year.
(5) Each report shall include the name and telephone number of the utility contact person responsible for the report.
(b) Recordkeeping. Each NGDC shall take measures necessary and keep sufficient records to report the following data to the Commission:
(1) Telephone access.
(i) The percentage of calls answered at each NGDC's call center within 30 seconds with the NGDC representative ready to render assistance and to accept information necessary to process the call. An acknowledgment that the customer or applicant is waiting on the line does not constitute an answer.
(ii) The average busy-out rate for each call center. If the NGDC reports data for more than one call center, the NGDC should also provide the combined busy-out rate for the NGDC as a whole.
(iii) The call abandonment rate for each call center. If the NGDC reports data for more than one call center, the NGDC should also provide the combined call abandonment rate for the NGDC as a whole.
(2) Billing.
(i) The number and percent of residential bills that the NGDC failed to render once every billing period to residential ratepayers under § 56.11 (relating to billing frequency).
(ii) The number and percent of bills that the NGDC failed to render once every billing period to small business customers.
(3) Meter reading.
(i) The number and percent of residential meters for which the company has failed to obtain an actual or ratepayer supplied reading within the past 6 months to verify the accuracy of estimated readings under § 56.12(4)(ii) (relating to meter reading; estimated billing; ratepayer readings).
(ii) The number and percent of residential meters for which the company has failed to obtain an actual meter reading within the past 12 months to verify the accuracy of the readings, either estimated or ratepayer read under § 56.12(4)(iii).
(iii) The number and percent of residential remote meters for which it has failed to obtain an actual meter reading at least once every 5 years to verify the accuracy of the remote reading device under § 56.12(5)(i).
(4) Response to disputes. The actual number of disputes as described in Chapter 56, Subchapter F (relating to disputes; termination disputes; informal and formal complaints) for which the company did not provide a response to the complaining party within 30 days of the initiation of the dispute under § 56.151(5) (relating to general rule).
(c) Comparison. Each NGDC report to the Commission shall contain an analysis and comparison of the quality of service data in each performance area during the most recent report period with its previous service quality in these areas.
§ 62.34. Customer surveys.
Each NGDC shall report to the Commission the results of telephone transaction surveys of customers who have had interactions with the NGDC.
(1) Purpose. The purpose of the transaction surveys is to assess the customer perception regarding the most recent interaction with the NGDC. Survey questions shall measure access to the utility, employe courtesy, employe knowledge, promptness of NGDC response or visit, timeliness of the NGDC response or visit and satisfaction with the handling of the interaction.
(2) Questions. The transaction survey questions shall specifically address the circumstances that generated the most recent transaction. Interaction categories shall include the following:
(i) Credit/collection.
(ii) Billing.
(iii) Reliability and safety.
(iv) Service installation and application.
(v) Service disconnection.
(vi) Other similar interactions.
(3) Uniform data. The NGDCs shall carry out the transaction survey process using instruments and procedures that provide the Commission with uniform data that can be used to directly compare customer service performance among NGDCs in this Commonwealth.
(4) Timely response. A customer or consumer being surveyed shall be contacted within 30 days of the date that the interaction with the NGDC took place.
(5) Sampling plan. The sampling plan shall be designed so that the results are statistically valid within plus or minus 5 percentage points.
(6) Commission approval. The survey instrumentation, as well as procedures for case selection, sampling, conducting the survey, analyzing results and reporting to the Commission shall be subject to the review and approval of the Commission.
(7) Timetable.
(i) The first report on survey results shall be submitted to the Commission on or before October 1, 2002. The October report shall contain survey results, reported by month, from the first 6 months of the calendar year.
(ii) The second report shall be submitted on or before April 1, 2003. The April report shall contain results, reported by month, from the second 6 months of the previous year as well as cumulative 12-month results.
(iii) Thereafter, the NGDC shall submit survey results annually, on or before April 1.
(iv) Each annual report shall contain results reported by month as well as cumulative 12-month results.
§ 62.35. NGDCs with fewer than 100,000 residential accounts.
Beginning September 1, 2002, each NGDC with less than 100,000 accounts shall report to the Commission the following information in lieu of §§ 62.33 and 62.34 (relating to reporting requirements; and customer surveys):
(1) The results of a mail survey of a sample of the NGDC customers who have had interactions with one or more representatives of the NGDC.
(2) The mail survey shall address the circumstances that generated the customer/company transaction.
(3) Each NGDC shall use the same mail survey questionnaire which shall be approved by the BCS. The mail survey questions shall measure customer perceptions regarding:
(i) Access to the utility.
(ii) Employe courtesy.
(iii) Employe knowledge.
(iv) Promptness and timeliness of the utility representative response.
(v) Satisfaction with the NGDC representative's handling of the interaction.
(4) The mail survey questionnaire shall be mailed to a customer within 30 days of the date that the transaction took place.
(5) The first report on survey results shall be submitted to the Commission on or before September 1, 2002. The September report shall contain survey results from the first 6 months of the calendar year.
(6) The second report shall be submitted on or before March 1, 2003 and shall contain survey results from the second 6 months of the calendar year.
(7) Thereafter, the NGDC shall submit survey results annually, on or before March 1.
§ 62.36. Informal complaints to the BCS.
(a) The BCS will review and analyze residential informal consumer complaints and payment arrangement requests filed with the Commission and will report the justified consumer complaint rate and the justified payment arrangement request rate for each NGDC with more than 100,000 residential accounts to the Commission on an annual basis.
(b) The BCS will report to the Commission the number of informally verified infractions of applicable statutes and regulations relating to the treatment of residential accounts by each NGDC with more than 100,000 residential accounts. The BCS will calculate and report to the Commission an ''infraction rate'' for each NGDC with more than 100,000 residential accounts.
§ 62.37. Public information.
The Commission will annually produce a summary report on the customer service performance of each covered NGDC using the statistics collected as a result of these reporting requirements. The reports will be public information. The Commission will provide the reports to any interested party and post the reports on the Commission's Internet website.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 00-290. Filed for public inspection February 18, 2000, 9:00 a.m.]
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