According to Muna, CUC also wants section 3 of P.L. 15-94 suspended.
“To comply with [it], CUC will have to reprogram its accounting software,” he said. “This is not an easy fix and may take 180 days to complete the required reprogramming from the date of the notice to proceed. Furthermore, we will have to pay for reprogramming to be done.”
Section 3 of P.L. 15-94 directs CUC to effect new rates the day after a meter is first read subsequent to the change in rate.
“In an increasing rate event,” Muna said, “those customers whose meters are read first will be paying the new higher rate while those customers whose meters are read last will continue to pay the lower rate until such time their meter is read. Customers will be paying different rates when the new rate is first effected. Although there are five cycles in a billing period, meters are read in each cycle do not happen all in one day. Potentially in each cycle, meter readings for customers in that cycle may have been read over a period of 4 to 5 different days in each cycle.”
To comply with the law, CUC will have to effect 20 to 25 effective dates for rate changes, Muna said.
If CUC could read all the meters on the same day, then software change and customers paying different rates could be averted, he said.
“However, at this time, reading meters of 15,000 customers all in the same day is not possible,” he added.
Muna wants Section 3 of P.L. 15-94 suspended “until such time that the reprogramming of CUC accounting software can be funded and accomplished — otherwise, CUC will have to hire enough meter readers to read all meters in one day and need to have additional vehicles.”
