§ 54.152. Definitions.
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
BCS—The Bureau of Consumer Services of the Commission.
Business office—A centralized service group which receives small commercial or residential billing inquiries, or both, and requests for service, whether or not equipped with an automated call distribution system.
Busy-out rate—The number of calls to an EDC’s call center or business office that received a busy signal divided by the number of calls that were received.
Call abandonment rate—The number of calls to an EDC’s call center or business office that were abandoned divided by the total number of calls received at the EDC’s telephone call center or business office.
Call center—A centralized facility established by a utility for transactions concerning installation and repair of service, billing and other inquiries between residential and small commercial customers and EDC representatives, but not including special purpose call centers established to respond to service emergencies and operating for a temporary period of time.
Code—The Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § § 101—3316.
Commission—The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
Customer—A retail electric customer as defined in section 2803 of the code (relating to definitions).
EDC—Electric Distribution Company—The term defined in section 2803 of the code.
Informal consumer complaint—An appeal by a consumer to the BCS about a utility’s proposed resolution of a dispute related to billing, service delivery, repairs and all other issues not related to requests for payment arrangements.
Informally verified infraction—An apparent misapplication of Commission regulations as determined by the BCS through its examination of information obtained as part of its review of informal consumer complaints and payment arrangement requests:(i) The informal verification process implemented by the BCS notifies a utility of the information which forms the basis of an alleged infraction, affords the utility the opportunity to affirm or deny the accuracy of the information, and concludes with a BCS determination regarding the alleged infraction.
(ii) An informally verified infraction is not equivalent to a formal violation under section 3301 of the code (relating to civil penalties for violations) unless otherwise determined through applicable Commission procedures.
Infraction—A misapplication of a Commission regulation, particularly the standards and billing practices for residential service.
Infraction rate—The number of informally verified infractions per 1,000 residential customers.
Justified informal consumer complaint—A complaint where the BCS has determined that an EDC did not follow Commission procedures or regulations.
Justified informal consumer complaint rate—The number of justified informal, residential consumer complaints per 1,000 residential customers.
Justified payment arrangement request—A payment arrangement request where an EDC did not follow Commission negotiation procedures or regulations.
Justified payment arrangement request rate—The number of justified payment arrangement requests from residential customers per 1,000 residential customers.
Payment arrangement request—A customer request for payment terms to the BCS.
Small business customer—A person, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, association or other business that receives electric service under a small commercial, small industrial or small business rate classification, and whose maximum registered peak load was less than 25 kW within the last 12 months.
Transaction survey—A survey targeted toward individuals that have had a recent interaction with an EDC. A transaction includes filing a complaint, inquiring about a bill, having a repair completed, installation of service or an appointment for a special meter reading.
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