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A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE PUBLIC REGULATION COMMISSION TO STUDY THE

BILLING PRACTICES OF PUBLIC UTILITIES, INCLUDING OVER-

COLLECTION AND UNDER-COLLECTION.

WHEREAS, public utilities, including rural electric

cooperatives, have a responsibility to collect their costs of

service through rates approved by the public regulation

commission from customers receiving electric service in New

Mexico; and

WHEREAS, occasionally there are billing errors due to

administrative or clerical error, system failure, improper

installation or malfunction of electric meters or other causes

that result in an under-collection or over-collection of

revenues from customers; and

WHEREAS, a public utility's failure to collect from a

customer the full amount of revenues authorized by the public

regulation commission for the service that has been provided

creates a burden upon other customers; and

WHEREAS, a public utility that has not discovered a

billing error for a long period of time results in a

significant shortfall of revenues to offset the actual cost of

service and thereby imposes additional costs on the other

customers; and

WHEREAS, in at least one instance, a utility failed to

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collect several millions of dollars over a nearly three-year

period from a customer due to an improperly installed meter by

the public utility's power supplier; and

WHEREAS, the matter was ultimately resolved with full

payment of the amounts due to the utility;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public

regulation commission be requested to investigate the

frequency of billing errors resulting in a significant under-

collection of money owed to public utilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation

commission study the cause and frequency of billing errors by

public utilities that result in a significant under-collection

of revenues and the resulting impact on all of the public

utility's customers, and that the commission report its

findings, conclusions and remedies to the legislative finance

committee and the New Mexico legislative council by December,

2006; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation

commission determine and report to the legislative finance

committee and the New Mexico legislative council, with respect

to significant under-collections of money from a customer how

and in what manner the public utility will refund money to its

customers at the time that collection is finally made and

what, if any, obstacles would prevent the public utility from

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immediately refunding this money to those customers who were

adversely impacted by the under-collection; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public regulation

commission report to the legislative finance committee and the

legislative council on the number of significant under-

collections that have occurred by a public utility in the past

three years, the cause for such under-collections and the

manner in which each instance was resolved and how customers

were protected from the adverse impact of the public utility's

failure to initially collect the proper amount; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the public regulation commission, the chair of

the legislative finance committee and the co-chairs of the New

Mexico legislative council.