79 Pa. Commw. 598 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1984
Opinion by
We have consolidated for argument and disposition the appeals of Building Owners and Managers Association and Southeastern Pennsylvania Trans
On July 29, 1981, .the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) filed Supplement No. 28 to its Tariff Electric-Pa. P.U.C. No. 25 with a proposed effective date of September 27, 1981. This supplement was designed to produce an annual base rate increase of approximately $344.5 million. By order dated September 16, 1981, the Commission initiated a formal rate investigation and allowed the Supplement to be suspended by operation of law for seven months under Section 1308 of the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa. C. S. §1308.
Hearings were held before an Administrative Law Judge who, on April 8, 1982, issued a Recommended Decision. The Commission entered its Final Opinion and Order on May 21, 1982, which adopted .the ALJ’s Recommended Decision on the rate structure matters at issue in the appeals sub judice.
No. 1445 G.D. 1982
¡SEPTA presents two arguments on appeal. It contends first that it is entitled to a separate mass transportation rate which is designed to return to PECO a rate of return equal to its system rate of return. SEPTA also contends that it is entitled to the extension of conjunctive billing to its Reading Commuter Lines.
In support of its argument for a separate mass transportation rate, SEPTA points to its unique service characteristics.
SEPTA also argues that it is entitled to conjunctive billing of its Wayne Junction Substation. This claim arises from its acquisition in 1979 of Reading Commuter Lines which is supplied by the Wayne Junction Substation. All twenty-nine of SEPTA’s other feeder points are billed conjunctively.
'Section 2.2 of PECO’s tariff states the general rule of conjunctive billing:
Single Point Delivery: Unless otherwise stipulated therein, the rates in this Tariff for each class of service are based upon its supply through a single delivery and metering point for the total requirements at each separate premises of contracting Customer. Separate supply for the same Customer at other points of consumption shall be separately metered and billed.
An exception found in the Rate HT Tariff provides:
Where a load of an industrial Customer located on single or continuous premises becomes greater than the capacity of the standard circuit or circuits established by the Company to supply the Customer, an additional separate delivery point may be established for such premises upon the written request of the customer and billing continued as if the service were being delivered and metered at a single point, provided such multi-point delivery is not disadvantageous to the Company.
No. 1424 C.D. 1982
The Association alleges unlawful discrimination in PECO’s rate structure, arguing that its members
No public utility shall, as to rates, mate dr grant any unreasonable preference or advantage to any person, corporation, or municipal corporation, or subject any person, corporation, or municipal corporation to any unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage. No public util*605 ity shall establish or maintain any unreasonable difference as to rates, either as between localities or as between classes of service. . . . This section does not prohibit the establishment of reasonable zone or group systems, or classifications of rates ....
Before addressing the individual arguments of the Association, we reiterate that mere variation in rates among classes of customers does not violate the Public Utility Code. The requirement is merely that rates of one class of .service shall not be unreasonably prejudicial and* disadvantageous to a patron in any other class of service. Thus, for a rate to be found unlawfully preferential, there must be both an advantage to one and a resulting injury to another. Manufacturer’s Association of Erie v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 47 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 31, 34, 407 A.2d 114, 116 (1979).
The Association argues that there is unlawful discrimination within the Rate HT class which is caused by the increase by 72.3% in the demand block and increases in the energy block declining from 12.3% in the initial block to 3.4% in the tail block. The Association argues that discrimination could be avoided merely by equalizing the rate increases of the demand and energy' charges. The ALJ’s opinion as adopted by the Commission held that the design of Rate HT is basically the rate design which the Commission ordered in R.I.D. 438, and it is the rate design which most precisely tracks the costs imposed by Rate HT customers.
The Association’s second argument is that the Commission erred in retaining the 80% demand rachet.
We hold, however, that there is competent evidence to support the modification of the surcharge and credit mechanism. The ALJ wrote, in accepting the modification and rejecting the Association’s complaint :
PECO claims that since the existing usage patterns of their customers are more off-peak than on-peak, introduction of this cost-based time-of-use rate will result in an initial revenue loss of $1.86 million ....
[The Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA)] contested the reasonableness of PECO’s revenue loss projections under the proposed time-of-use rate, and argued that the rate should be adjusted from an exact cost basis and be. made revenue neutral ....
The company’s proposal as modified by the suggestions of [the OCA witness] should be adopted. This averts the need for a $1.86 million revenue loss which would have to be borne by other customers.
Affirmed.
Order
Tbe order of tbe Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission entered May 21, 1982, at No. R-811626 is affirmed.
Entered on May 21, 1982 at Docket No. R-811626.
SEPTA argues that its peak usually falls on a winter morning as compared to the remainder of the HT (High Tension) class, its traction power is received at 30 points, and it serves total public interest.
SEPTA relies on Riverton Consolidated, Water Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 186 Pa. Superior Ct. 1, 140 A.2d 114 (1958). There, the court directed the Commission to establish a separate rate for a group of customers. The Commission order which was overturned had imposed upon complaining customers of a water company the cost of a loss of water supply as the result of leaks in the utility’s general distribution system which was not connected with the water main exclusively serving the complaining customers.
The Association’s members consist of large office building owners.
We reject the Association’s contention that the Commission rejected in R.I.D. 439 the same rate design at issue here. PECO’s Rate HT design satisfies the Commission’s concern in R.I.D. 438 that demand and load factor variations among customers would re-
This mechanism charges Rate HT and Rate PD customers whose demand in any of the eight winter months is less than 80% of their highest monthly demand in any of the previous summer months as if they are demanding 80% of their summer demand.
The Association also argues that the burden was on the utility to support the rachet. We disagree. The demand rachet was an existing rate, previously approved by the Commission. The burden, therefore, falls on the customer to prove that the rate is no longer reasonable. Brockway Glass Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 63 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 238, 243, 437 A.2d 1067, 1070 (1981).
Since we are affirming the order of the Commission, we need not address the Commission’s motion to strike portions of the Association’s brief.