PSC grants most interruptible‑service penalty waivers but denies one; commissioners urge review of who should be eligible for interruptible rates

The Public Service Commission on June 4 considered five requests for waivers or reductions of penalties assessed when interruptible customers continued to take gas during a system curtailment earlier this year. Kenneth Alberts and engineering staff presented five cases involving a mix of hospitals, a senior residential facility, a university and a dairy. Staff grouped the requests into three buckets: (1) events beyond the customer’s control, (2) partial customer fault, and (3) customer fault where backup equipment lacked sufficient capacity.

Staff explained the penalty framework in utility tariffs: an interruptible customer that consumes gas after an interruption directive is subject to a per‑therm penalty plus an additional charge tied to the highest actual purchase price the utility paid during the curtailment. For Washington Gas Light (WGL) the tariff describes a $3 per‑therm unauthorized consumption penalty plus an additional multiplier on the utility’s highest purchased gas price during the event.

Asbury Atlantic LLC (a senior living facility on WGL service) told commissioners it switched to oil but supplemented with roughly 1,000 therms of gas over a two‑day curtailment when temperatures and regulatory obligations for resident safety required additional…