DOESN'T IT just figure?
The Public Utility Commission just announced it made a huge mistake in calculating the amount of rate increase it was granting Philadelphia Gas Works. Unfortunately, the mistake is not in PGW's favor.
Instead of the $39 million base-rate increase the PUC approved last month, PGW will now get $5.5 million less.
PGW's initial request was for $65 million.
Ouch.
This math error is likely to send PGW reeling to figure out how to pay its bills. But in some ways, it seems like sweet justice, given the utility's history of bad billing, bad call service, and past bad management. The current team that's been trying to clean up the mess has finally reported progress on fixing PGW's call center so that ratepayers can get through. That seemingly simple problem took more than a year, and an outside firm, to fix.
