A retail electric utility which has received a refund from its wholesale supplier as a result of a reduction in rates set by a federal regulatory authority shall distribute the refund to its retail customers, including former customers, if they can be located, in the following manner:

1. (1) Except as provided in sub. (2), the retail electric utility shall distribute the refund on the basis of actual kilowatt-hours used by each customer during the period for which the refund is made.

2. (2) If the utility can show that the cost of making the refund on the basis of actual usage will substantially diminish the benefit, it may, after commission authorization, distribute the refund through an adjustment to the power cost adjustment clause. The utility shall be required to keep a file for a minimum of 2 years of sales history for the purpose of making a refund based on actual usage.

   Note: The 2-year record-keeping requirement of this section does not affect any other record-keeping requirements of the PSC code.

3. (3) If the utility has the billing capability, it shall show as a separate item on the customer’s bill the refund dollar amount or the change in the purchased power adjustment clause level due to the refund. If the utility does not have the billing capability, it shall inform customers of the refund through bill inserts or a newspaper announcement.
4. (4) If through inaccurate operation or application of the power cost adjustment clause, a utility has not recovered from retail ratepayers the full amount of the increased costs which it had been temporarily charged by the wholesale supplier and which is the subject of a refund under these rules, the utility may, following commission approval, retain a portion or all of the wholesale refund to cover such costs.

History

History: Cr. Register, December, 1983, No. 336, eff. 1-1-84; am. (1) to (3), Register, August, 1991, No. 428, eff. 9-1-91.