Subchapter F. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR QUALITY OF SERVICE BENCHMARKS AND STANDARDS
Sec.
54.151. Purpose.
54.152. Definitions.
54.153. Reporting requirements
54.154. Customer surveys.
54.155. Informal complaints to the BCS.
54.156. Public information.
Authority The provisions of this Subchapter F issued under the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § 501; and the Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act, 66 Pa.C.S. § 2807(a) and (d), unless otherwise noted.
Source The provisions of this Subchapter F adopted July 10, 1998, effective July 11, 1998, 28 Pa.B. 3283, unless otherwise noted.
§ 54.151. Purpose.
This subchapter establishes a means by which the Commission can develop uniform measurement and reporting to assure that the customer services of the EDCs 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 EDCs’ customer service performance. This subchapter also establishes the effective dates of the reporting requirements.
§ 54.152. 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.
Business office—A centralized service group which receives small commercial or residential billing inquiries, or both, and requests for service, whether or not equipped with an automated call distribution system.
Busy-out rate—The number of calls to an EDC’s call center or business office that received a busy signal divided by the number of calls that were received.
Call abandonment rate—The number of calls to an EDC’s call center or business office that were abandoned divided by the total number of calls received at the EDC’s telephone call center or business office.
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 EDC representatives, but not including special purpose call centers established to respond to service emergencies and operating for a temporary period of time.
Code—The Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § § 101—3316.
Commission—The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
Customer—A retail electric customer as defined in section 2803 of the code (relating to definitions).
EDC—Electric Distribution Company—The term defined in section 2803 of the code.
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 section 3301 of the code (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 EDC 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 where an EDC 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 that receives electric service under a small commercial, small industrial or small business rate classification, and whose maximum registered peak load was less than 25 kW within the last 12 months.
Transaction survey—A survey targeted toward individuals that have had a recent interaction with an EDC. A transaction includes filing a complaint, inquiring about a bill, having a repair completed, installation of service or an appointment for a special meter reading.§ 54.153. Reporting requirements.
(a) Reporting requirements.
(1) Unless otherwise specified in this subchapter, each EDC shall file its first report with the Commission on or before August 1, 1999. 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 EDC shall file its second report on or before February 1, 2000. The February report shall contain data, reported by month, from the second 6 months of the year as well as 6-month cumulative average and a 12-month cumulative average for the preceding calendar year.
(3) Thereafter, the EDCs shall file reports annually with the Secretary of the Commission on or before February 1. Each report shall contain data, reported by month, as well as a 12-month cumulative average for the preceding calendar year. Each report shall include the name and telephone number of the utility contact person responsible for the report.
(b) Records. Each EDC shall take measures necessary and keep sufficient records to report the following data to the Commission:
(1) Telephone access.
(i) The percent of calls answered at each EDC’s call center or business office, or both, within 30 seconds with the EDC 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. If the EDC reports data for more than one call center or business office, the EDC should also provide the combined percent of calls answered within 30 seconds for the EDC as a whole.
(ii) The average busy-out rate for each call center business office, or both. If the EDC reports data for more than one call center or business office, the EDC should also provide the combined busy-out rate for the EDC as a whole.
(iii) The call abandonment rate for each call center or business office, or both. If the EDC reports data for more than one call center or business office, the EDC should also provide the combined call abandonment rate for the EDC as a whole.
(2) Billing.
(i) The number and percent of residential bills that the EDC 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 EDC 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 in accordance with § 56.12(4)(ii) (relating to meter reading; estimated billing; or 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 in accordance with § 56.12(4)(iii).
(iii) The number and percent of residential remote meters for which it has failed to obtain an actual meter reading under the time frame in § 56.12(5)(ii).
(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 of service quality. Each EDC report to the Commission shall contain an analysis and comparison of the quality of service data in each performance area during the past 6 months with its previous service quality in these areas.
§ 54.154. Customer surveys.
(a) Results of telephone transaction surveys. Each EDC shall report to the Commission the results of telephone transaction surveys of customers who have had interactions with the EDC.
(1) The purpose of the transaction surveys is to assess the customer perception regarding the most recent interaction with the EDC. Survey questions shall measure access to the utility, employe courtesy, employe knowledge, promptness of EDC response or visit, timeliness of EDC response or visit and satisfaction with the handling of the interaction.
(2) The transaction survey questions shall specifically address the circumstances that generated the most recent transaction. Interaction categories include the following:
(i) Service installation.
(ii) Premise visit by company field personnel for an activity other than service installation.
(iii) Service interruption.
(iv) Billing balance inquiry or dispute.
(v) Request for discontinuance of service.
(vi) Application for service.
(vii) Other similar interactions.
(3) The EDCs 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 EDCs in this Commonwealth.
(4) A customer or consumer being surveyed shall be contacted within 30 days of the date that the interaction with the EDC took place.
(5) The sampling plan shall be designed so that the results are statistically valid within plus or minus 5%.
(b) 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.
(c) Timetable.
(1) The first report on survey results shall be submitted to the Commission on or before October 1, 2000. The October report shall contain survey results, reported by month, from the first 6 months of the calendar year.
(2) The second report shall be submitted on or before April 1, 2001. 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.
(3) Thereafter, the EDC shall submit survey results annually, on or before April 1. Each annual report shall contain results reported by month as well as cumulative 12-month results.
§ 54.155. 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 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 EDC. The BCS will calculate and report to the Commission an ‘‘infraction rate’’ for each EDC.
§ 54.156. Public information.
The Commission will annually produce a summary report on the customer service performance of each EDC 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.
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