State Agency to Investigate Improper Billing at PSE&G

by Tom Johnson, NJSpotlight.com

The state Board of Public Utilities this week decided to launch an investigation into allegations that Public Service Electric & Gas improperly billed customers by shifting some of its expenses to clean energy and energy efficiency programs and then recovering those costs from ratepayers.

The agency had been urged to look into the allegations, the subject of a whistleblowers’ suit filed by three former PSE&G employees last month in Superior Court in Essex County, by the Division of Rate Counsel.

The BPU quickly approved a recommendation by staff to investigate the issue, with its new president, Robert Hanna, saying the allegations, if true, could lead to criminal charges.

“We should begin our inquiry and see where the facts lead us,’’ said Hanna, a former federal prosecutor who chaired his first regularly scheduled monthly agenda meeting in the Statehouse in Trenton.

The implications of the probe could have a significant impact on the future of New Jersey’s clean energy programs. The agency’s staff in the Office of Clean Energy earlier this year suggested the state expand its utility-sponsored solar loan programs. PSE&G’s Solar 4 All program is by far the largest of the bunch, amounting to $515 million in investments.

The allegations stem from charges by three former employees that they lost their jobs with the state’s largest utility after they refused to go along with efforts by PSE&G to defraud ratepayers in connection with the company’s Solar 4 All program, the Energy Efficiency Economic Stimulus, and Infrastructure Economic Stimulus programs.

One former employee, Stuart Stott, alleged that when a Linden solar farm came in under budget, he was pressured by his superiors to bill the cost of a $300,000 billboard, completely unrelated to the Solar 4 All program, to the project. The utility stood to gain from the investment since it earns a 10 percent profit on all costs related to the Solar 4 All program, a more than $500 million clean energy initiative approved by the agency.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com