The New York State Public Service Commission has determined that public utilities NYSEG and RG&E failed to meet customer service standards and will be penalized accordingly.
NYSEG faces a reduction in customer revenue of $8.72 million, while RG&E is set to lose $5.9 million.
The two utilities serve thousands of customers locally and their penalties are part of a record $22.5 million in fines levied by the commission against six utilities, a figure almost ten times higher than the $2.3 million assessed in 2021.
In a statement responding to the announcement, RG&E and NYSEG highlighted their ongoing efforts to improve customer service and reliability. They emphasized recent advancements, such as significantly reducing customer wait times, improving billing accuracy, and hiring hundreds of new staff to mitigate the severe pandemic-related impacts on monthly meter reading and billing processes.
The utilities also pointed to their continued work on improving reliability by replacing tens of thousands of aging poles and other equipment contributing to outages. This work has affected 600,000 homes across the state in 2022 alone. They stressed that these actions are part of a broader initiative outlined in a joint rate proposal with the PSC, aimed at improving overall service quality for their customers.
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