(1)
Recovery of uncollected gas costs using the modified Refund Adjustment Formula
is optional. Any Company electing to recover uncollected gas costs in its
annual ACA filing using the modified Refund Adjustment Formula shall comply
fully with the following procedures:
(a) At
the time a customer account balance is written-off, the gas cost and the margin
portion of the uncollected amount for each customer account shall be
specifically identified from actual amounts billed and a percentage of total
gas costs to the total amount written-off established.
(b) For purposes of the calculation in (a),
other charges, such as late fees, applicable state and local taxes, and
collection fees shall not be included in the calculation of the percentage of
gas costs to the total amount written-off.
(c) If the account balance written-off is
later collected in full, the uncollected gas costs shall be credited with the
full amount of the gas cost portion of the account.
(d) If the account balance written-off is not
collected in full, the partial payment shall be allocated and credited to
uncollected gas costs using the same percentage established for gas costs in
(a).
(e) If a Company's billing
system (including both computer and manual functions) is not capable of
accurately allocating a partial payment, the partial payment shall be credited
100% to uncollected gas costs first, with any
remainder treated as recovered margin.
(f) For those Companies whose allowance for
uncollectible accounts (recovered in base rates) contains a gas cost portion,
the amount of that portion shall be netted with the eligible uncollected gas
costs included for recovery in the ACA. Each such Company shall submit its
calculation of the amount to be netted with actual uncollected gas cost amounts
as part of the annual ACA filing.
(g) The gas cost portion of written-off
account balances and the amount of gas costs recovered from subsequent payments
on these accounts shall be charged or credited, as appropriate, to the ACA
account at least annually for inclusion in the ACA filing.
(h) Any variance between amounts charged or
credited in the annual filing of the ACA and the amounts recorded in the
monthly reports required in subparagraph (2) shall be reconciled and documented
by the Company for review by the TRA Compliance Staff (Staff) during the annual
audit of the ACA.
(i) Each Company
shall file its policy (internal procedures followed) for determining the
uncollectibility of a customer account balance, disconnection of a customer's
service for non-payment, collection attempts made by the company both before
and after an account balance is written-off, and conditions a customer must
fulfill to be reconnected to the gas system. This written policy shall be filed
with the TRA within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this Rule
part.
(2) Each Company
electing to recover uncollected gas costs in the ACA shall comply with the
following reporting requirements:
(a) Customer
account balances written-off shall be tracked separately in sufficient detail,
so as to permit the Staff to audit write-offs and subsequent payments on
written-off accounts.
(b) Each
Company shall submit a monthly summary report detailing each write-off and each
payment to a written-off account for that month and the total amount eligible
for recovery in the ACA no later than the first business day of the third month
following the reported month, using a format acceptable to the Staff.
Corrections or adjustments to these monthly reports shall be timely filed.
Failure to submit a required monthly report may result in disallowance of
recovery in the ACA of the uncollected gas costs for that month. The Company is
responsible for contacting Staff should an extraordinary event prevent the
timely filing of this report.
(c)
Monthly reports shall be electronically filed in Excel format and shall
contain, at a minimum, the following information:
1. Information reported at the time an
uncollected account balance is written-off:
(i) Customer account numbers, with
spreadsheet data sorted by account number in ascending order;
(ii) Date that account balance is
written-off;
(iii) Amount of total
gas cost written-off;
(iv) Amount
of total margin written-off;
(v)
Total amount of gas cost and margin written-off ((iii) plus (iv));
(vi) Gas cost percentage of total amount
written-off ((iii) divided by (v)); and
(vii) Margin percentage of total amount
written-off ((iv) divided by (v)).
2. Information reported at the time a full or
partial payment is received on an account balance that has been written-off:
(i) Customer account numbers, with
spreadsheet data sorted by account number in ascending order;
(ii) Date that payment was
received;
(iii) Original write-off
date of the account balance applicable to this payment;
(iv) Gas cost payment credited to written-off
account balance;
(v) Margin payment
credited to written-off account balance;
(vi) Total of gas cost payment (recovery) and
margin payment (recovery) ((iv) plus (v));
(vii) Gas cost payment percentage of total
amount recovered credited to customer account ((iv) divided by (vi));
and
(viii) Margin payment
percentage of total amount recovered ((v) divided by (vi)).
(3) Each
Company electing to recover uncollected gas costs in its annual ACA filing
shall sufficiently demonstrate to Staff that it is making reasonable efforts to
collect delinquent accounts prior to the account balance being written-off. As
part of the ACA filing, the Company shall submit a report showing the amount of
uncollected gas costs by month, the total revenues by month, and the percentage
of uncollected gas costs compared to total revenues by month and in total. The
Company shall provide an explanation of any significant increase in this
percentage from one month to the next.
(4) Failure of a Company to fully comply with
the procedures and/or reporting requirements contained in this Rule part may
result in the disallowance of all or a portion of uncollected gas costs
eligible for recovery in the ACA during the annual ACA audit.
(5) Once a Company makes the election to
recover uncollected gas costs in the ACA, the Company must continue to file its
uncollected gas costs for recovery in the ACA in compliance with this
Rule.
