Press Release

    Harrisburg, Pa., July 23 ¾ Pike County Power & Light Company (Pike County) will allow all customers to shop for their electric generation supplier beginning May 1, 1999, under a settlement restructuring plan approved 5-0 today by the Public Utility Commission (PUC).

    The settlement accelerates the utility’s phase-in to electric competition by two years. Under Pennsylvania’s Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1996, all customers will have the ability to shop for their generation supplier by no later than January 1, 2001. Pike County is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) of New York. The phase-in date is coincides with the expected start-up date of O&R’s electric competition plan approved in New York and the planned operational date of the New York Independent System Operator.

    Pennsylvania’s Office of Consumer Advocate and Office of Small Business Advocate agreed to the settlement.

    Pike County’s identified stranded costs include $589,200 for non-utility generation and $62,333 for regulatory assets. Its total stranded costs will be determined after O&R divests its generation assets as part of New York state’s restructuring process. In the interim, Pike County customers will receive a temporary system average shopping credit of 3.40 cents per kilowatt-hour. Customers will save money if they purchase electricity for less than the shopping credit.

    Pike County will be allowed to collect stranded costs no later than December 31, 2005. Stranded costs are those costs incurred under a regulated market which may not be recoverable in a competitive market. The electric competition law allows utilities to collect stranded costs that the PUC finds to be just and reasonable.

    In addition, Pike County will expand its Neighbor Fund by $10,000 annually. The fund is used to provide crisis grants to customers who are unable to pay their electric bills and is administered by the Salvation Army. The utility will also implement a Low Income Pilot Program, forgiving up to $250 of arrears per customer if the customer goes on budget billing and makes timely and full payments. Pike County will also install up to $500 of energy conservation measures per customer.

    Starting in May 1999, Pike County will unbundle its rates to reflect separate prices for the generation charge, the competitive transition charge, and transmission and distribution charges. While generation will be open to competition, Pike County will continue to provide transmission and distribution services to its customers at PUC-regulated rates.

    Pike County filed its initial restructuring plan on September 30, 1997. The utility provides electricity to approximately 4,000 customers in Pike County.

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