LANSING – Consumers Energy and the Public Service Commission did a better job supporting the need for an advanced metering program than had Detroit Edison, the Court of Appeals said in upholding the former’s program in a case released Wednesday.
Over objections from the attorney general and the Association for Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity, the court, in a per curiam opinion, upheld most of a 2010 rate order for Consumers (In re Application of Consumers Energy Company to Increase Rates, COA docket Nos. 310318 and 301381).
That Consumers presented two witnesses to the PSC who talked about the finances involved in the program, and the PSC cut back the scope of the project until even more information could be provided, swayed the court to uphold the program this time. “Consumers’ witnesses covered many particulars concerning benefits and timing, and what the PSC relied on from its own staff witness was decidedly guarded,” the court said. “Perhaps most significantly, we note that the amount of AMI funding that the PSC approved was decidedly conservative – far below the amount requested,” the court said.
Edison, in its earlier case, had provided mostly “aspirational testimony” to back its request for ratepayer support of the program, the court said.
ABATE has asked the court to reject the $3.3 million the PSC had approved for the program, but the court noted that was a $40.8 million reduction from what Consumers had requested in finding the rate increase was warranted.
Since other courts had already approved rate decoupling mechanisms for Edison, the court here also held up that provision of the PSC’s decision for Consumers.
But it also followed prior case law in rejecting provisions that allowed Consumers to pass on its contributions to the Low-Income and Energy Efficiency Fund to ratepayers.
The unpublished opinion was signed by Judge Stephen Borrello, Judge E. Thomas Fitzgerald and Judge Donald Owens.
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