The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved a plan to correct natural gas customer billing errors that caused approximately 25,800 Washington Gas Light (WGL) customers to be overbilled or underbilled. The errors occurred over the past 10 years.

As a result of settlement negotiations with WGL, SCC staff and the Division of Consumer Counsel of the Office of Attorney General, the plan will provide for refunds for some customers and additional charges for others. The plan also had the support of Arlington County Citizen and Consumer Affairs, the City of Alexandria and the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Division. Participants labeled the plan as a “fair and reasonable solution.”

According to WGL, the billing errors — which were discovered in March 2001 — resulted from an inconsistency between the delivery pressure of gas reflected in the company’s billing system and the actual delivery pressure to certain of its customers in Virginia and resulted in overcharges in some cases and undercharges in others. WGL estimates that approximately 9,500 customers were overbilled and approximately 16,300 were underbilled.

The joint stipulation — which was filed in June by WGL — resolved all issues related to the remediation of billing errors:

WGL said it has been conducting on-site inspections of every customer meter in its service territory of 380,000 customers to determine which have been billed incorrectly. The on-site inspections are expected to take until October 2004 to complete. In addition, the SCC also directed WGL to provide written notice to former customers that the company determines are entitled to a refund at their last known address from the company’s records. Former customers must respond in writing within 90 days in order to receive a refund.

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