FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC) Application for a Certificate of Public ...

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Response:
FortisBC Inc. (FortisBC or the Company)
Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity
for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project
Response to British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC or the Commission)
Information Request (IR) No. 1
Submission Date:
October 5, 2012
Page 235
cost savings of $96,000 per year for a total of $265,000 per year following Project
completion.” [Ref: 2008 CPCN, B-2, A2.4]
“The forecast savings in Contact Centre operating costs represents a benefit to FortisBC
customers of $0.4 million as evaluated on a net present value basis.” [Ref: B-1, p. 96]
99.1 Please explain why the Contact Centre savings appear to be significantly lower
than as presented in the FortisBC 2008 AMI CPCN Application process.
The savings for the Contact Centre and Billing are confirmed to be lower in the 2012 AMI
Application than in the 2008 AMI Application.
FortisBC has chosen in this Application to focus on the most certain contact centre savings,
which are those that relate to increased call volume during meter deployment and reduced soft
read data entry. FortisBC continues to believe (as asserted in the 2008 Application) that there
will be fewer calls and billing corrections resulting from inaccurate reads and estimates.
However, the Company is concerned that those savings may be offset by increased call volume
related to the new, more detailed consumption information that will be available to customers
after the implementation of AMI. It is important to FortisBC that it has sufficient contact centre
resources available to support customers throughout the life of the AMI project.
If call volumes and billing corrections are lower than forecast, those savings will be reflected in
future revenue requirements.
100.0 Reference: Project Costs and Benefits
Exhibit No. B-1, Tab 5.0, Section 6.1, pp. 89-91
Residential Power Factor
100.1 Does FortisBC believe the overall residential power factor (PF) to be below 0.9?