At its April 30 meeting, the Public Service Commissionruledthat "Not all utilities are required to offer a budget payment plan, regardless of customer class, to all customers. The administrative code and tariff requirements related to budget payment plans remain in effect and unchanged."

 

The Wisconsin Utilities Association, Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin, WPPI Energy and several individual utilities including La Crosse Water Utility, City of Appleton Water Utility and Green Bay Water Utility all opposed expanding budget billing requirements beyond residential electric and gas customers. "They explained that complying with such a requirement would require costly changes to billing systems, be time-intensive due to the difficulty of estimating bills for certain customer classes, and would potentially result in cash flow difficulties for the utilities," according tothe memo prepared by staff for the meeting.

 

Water utilities may, but are not required to offer budget billing to customers. Commenters pointed out that for those not currently offering this option, setting up systems to offer budget payment plans would "entail cost and complexity." The water utilities also told the commission that they bill quarterly, which also allows customers some flexibility.