NYSEG and RG&E among NY utilities facing millions in penalties for poor customer service

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Public Service Commission announced on Thursday that several New York electric, gas, and water utilities failed to meet their annual customer service performance targets for 2023.

New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (RG&E) were among the utilities that failed to meet all four of their customer service metrics. As a result, NYSEG faces negative revenue adjustments (NRAs) of $11.4 million, while RG&E faces NRAs of $7.1 million.

NRAs reduce a utility’s return on equity and are automatically credited to customers or deferred until the next rate case.

The Commission emphasizes that utilities exist to serve customers, and the services they provide are vital to public health, welfare, and the economy. When a company fails to maintain good customer service, the Commission-approved customer service performance targets are activated to ensure the utilities receive powerful market signals to improve their behavior.

The financial penalties and negative revenue adjustments serve as a reminder to utilities that providing excellent customer service is a top priority and that failure to meet these standards will result in consequences.

Avangrid, the parent company of RG&E and NYSEG, issued the following statement:

“Last year, NYSEG and RG&E were faced with customer service issues mainly due to severe post-pandemic challenges and the great resignation, years of delay in smart meters approval by New York State and a higher Public Service Commission standard to meet than some other New York utilities. The companies faced these immense challenges head-on by hiring more than 140 new staff, holding more than 60 in-person community events around the state to meet our customers where they live and upgrading our technology and automation, including the game-changing rollout of 570,000 smart meters following the state’s approval.

“This significant progress over the past year demonstrates that our efforts are paying off, with estimated bills dropping as low as 3% of complaint calls, answering the majority of calls within 30 seconds and overall contact satisfaction rebounding. We also continue to invest in projects to modernize our aging grid, focusing on reliability and resiliency across our service territory in the places we need to improve the most. We’re investing more than $2.1 billion into grid automation, tree trimming, and installing 45,000 new poles that will make a real difference in electric reliability for our customers. We will continue this forward momentum with investments and with our dedicated workforce to further improve the service we provide to our customers.“

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