Exelon’s Current Chicanery

John Kowalko cannot recall a proposal more specifically designed to squeeze profit out of his constituents without providing any improvement in service.  ..and he has seen three lifetimes worth of chicanery on this topic.

Subject: Fwd: Delmarva wants more $$$ — Time to speak out against corporate greed.

Delmarva wants to add another surcharge to our bill. And some of our legislators are ready to give them the increase without checking with us.

Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 80 (SS1/SB80) will allow Delmarva to impose a Distribution System Improvement Charge (DSIC) between the regular rate increases that happen about every two years.

This DSIC is a surcharge and has nothing to do with the amount of electricity we use. It will produce approximately $17 million for Delmarva’s parent company, Exelon — whose revenue in 2016 was over $30 billion.

We are already paying a number of surcharges, including the one to Bloom Energy that was supposed to bring 900 jobs to Delaware. (900? Not even close!) We Delmarva customers have paid Bloom $130 million in the first four years of ‘our’ contract, and we’ll keep paying Bloom until 2033.  (And let’s not forget the surcharge facing us when the Artificial Island project starts. Delaware customers are slated to pay 60% of that one.)

We are grateful that the Public Advocate for Delaware, Drew Slater, opposes SS1/SB80. He is fulfilling his “role is to advocate for the lowest reasonable rates for consumers consistent with the maintenance of adequate utility service and principally on behalf of residential and small commercial consumers.”

Please speak out now against SS1/SB80. The lobbyists for Exelon and Delmarva have been in Legislative Hall for weeks building support for this bill. Talking points below.

1. If your senator or rep is a sponsor, contact them and ask them to take their names off SS1/SB80.
Sponsors: Senators McDowell (primary), Poore, Cloutier, Hocker
Representatives: Paradee, Longhurst, Brady, Carson, Heffernan, Hudson Q. Johnson, Smyk and Wilson

2. Testify at the Senate Environmental, Natural Resources & Energy Committee hearing for SS1/SB 80 on Wednesday, June 7 at 1:30 in the Senate Majority Caucus Room. Prepare a maximum two-minute speech.

3. If you cannot be at the hearing and your Senator is on the Committee, please contact him or her and ask that they represent you, not Exelon. Committee members are: Harris B. McDowell, Stephanie L. Hansen, John Walsh, Gerald W. Hocker, Ernesto B Lopez

4. Pass this on to other Delawareans.

If you are a member of the Delaware Electric Cooperative, please contact your legislators in support of your neighbors who are forced customers of Delmarva.

Talking Points
Some of the arguments you will hear from Delmarva are:
1. The need for less rate cases, which are costly
2. Less volatility in consumer bills
3. The water utilities have a DSIC
In a News Journal article, Delmarva Power’s vice president, Glenn Moore said, “If the plan were implemented this year Delmarva would postpone a request for a full rate increase from this August until next year.” (Notice that Delmarva still plans to ask for a rate increase. But they’ll be nice and wait a year if they get the surcharge this year.)
Public Advocate: “Exelon says it is only asking for what the water utilities have had since 2001; however, it is my opinion that the water utilities companies should not have a DSIC either.”
(Artesian, the largest water company in Delaware, has had a DSCI since 2001 and yet they still come in for rate cases every 2.5 years.)
Public Advocate: “Exelon is not requesting this legislation because it needs more money for reliability investment; if it really needed the DSIC funds for that, it would not have agreed to cap its reliability spending from 2015-2019 to $225 million. Rather, it is requesting this legislation because DPL is not currently earning its Commission-approved 9.7% return on equity, but instead is earning around 7%…. I do not believe that company and shareholder profit should be subsidized by Delaware’s captive residential, small commercial or industrial consumers.”
Public Advocate: “This generous grant of money would come with significantly less oversight and examination….The base rate increase is an important way for regulators to make sure utility companies have a justification for increasing rates. And the process sometimes leads to companies getting less than they asked for. In its last electric rate increase, Delmarva asked for an increase of $64 million but settled for about half that amount.”
Public Advocate: Regulated utilities are given the opportunity to earn the returns on equity awarded by the PSC, but they are not guaranteed they will earn it. Allowing any utility to collect revenues from captive customers without the oversight that comes through the rate case proceeding is the antithesis of good regulatory policy and serves as a disincentive to control costs in the manner that competitive businesses do. Delaware already has some of the highest rates in the south-Atlantic region. Delaware’s high electric rates deter large commercial and industrial concerns from considering Delaware. Moreover, there is a very real likelihood that DPL’s ratepayers’ rates will increase substantially when the Artificial Island project commences. If this legislation passes, DPL’s low-income residents will be even less able to afford their bills, and economic development opportunities will be further stifled – to the benefit of the Chicago-based headquarters of Exelon Corporation.