Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Michigan issued the following announcement on May 19.
The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) today moved forward on its annual approval of the funding factor for the state’s Low-Income Energy Assistance Fund (LIEAF) (Case No. U-17377).
Each year the MPSC sets the funding factor for LIEAF, a monthly per-meter fee assessed on retail electric billing meters in all rate classes that cannot exceed $1. The total amount collected is capped at $50 million per year. Last year’s surcharge was 92 cents.
The money raised through LIEAF is distributed through the Michigan Energy Assistance Program (MEAP). In 2019, MEAP funding provided energy assistance payments and self-sufficiency services to 61,199 low-income households. The MPSC administers MEAP in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services by providing grants to non-profit organizations that provide direct assistance to low-income customers.
The MPSC must set the LIEAF funding factor each year no later than July 31 for the following fiscal year, based on participation by investor-owned, municipally owned and rural electric cooperative utilities.
Electric utilities may elect not to collect the funding factor by annually filing a notice with the MPSC by July 1; these utilities shall not shut off service to any residential customer from Nov. 1 to April 15 for nonpayment of a delinquent account. Participating utilities must, by July 1, provide to MPSC the number of retail billing meters served by the utility in Michigan that are subject to the monthly per-meter fee, which the Commission uses to establish the funding factor. If a residential customer has multiple meters, the customer is assessed only once.
Today’s order requires electric utilities to file by noon on July 1, 2020, information showing the number of retail billing meters the utility serves that are subject to the LIEAF funding factor, or file notice that the utility intends to opt out of collecting it.
Energy bill payment assistance funds are still available for customers in need. Residential utility and propane customers who are in financial distress are encouraged to be proactive by first contacting their utility for help, or seek assistance by calling 211, applying for State Emergency Relief (SER), and applying for a Home Heating Credit. Visit www.michigan.gov/mpsc for additional consumer tips and utility contact information.
MPSC APPROVES SETTLEMENT TO DELAY PEAK-USE CHARGES FOR CONSUMERS ENERGY CUSTOMERS AMID CORONAVIRUS STAY-HOME ORDER
The MPSC today approved an amended settlement agreement between Consumers Energy Co. and its electric customers that delays the implementation of summertime peak use time charges to accommodate the extraordinary circumstances of so many residential customers being sequestered at home because of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Under the agreement (Case No. U-20134), Consumers will implement a revenue-neutral, uniform on-peak/off-peak power supply charge for residential customers instead of transitioning to summertime peak rates that had been set to be in effect June 1 to Sept. 30, 2020. The on-peak/off-peak rates will instead be instituted during summertime 2021. The agreement amends a settlement of a rate case Consumers filed in May 2018 that the Commission had already approved
Original source can be found here.
Source: Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Michigan
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