The Peru Gazette

ALBANY, July 16, 2026  – The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) announced a combined $50.1 million in penalties against five utilities that failed to meet their 2025 customer service standards. The action came as the Commission received an update from Department of Public Service staff on multiple New York electric, gas, and water utilities’ annual customer service performances for 2025.

While five utilities were found to have missed their performance standards, six others met theirs and provided adequate customer service to New Yorkers.

“Utilities provide services which are vital to public health, welfare, and New York’s economy,” said Commission Chair Rory M. Christian. “By approving incentives and enforcing consequences for utilities to meet customer service performance targets, the Commission ensures utilities uphold customer experience as a priority by design.”

NYSEG, RG&E, Central Hudson, National Grid, and Liberty Utilities failed to meet their minimum performance standards. These deficiencies result in negative revenue adjustments (NRAs), which are designed to incentivize better customer service performance by reducing a utility’s shareholder earnings.

NRAs are either automatically credited to customers under each utility’s respective rate plan or deferred until the next rate case as regulatory liabilities that the Commission can use to offset a portion of the utility’s revenue requirement during some future period for the benefit of customers. The Commission-adopted rate plans for each utility specify the metrics against which the utility’s performance will be assessed, the thresholds at which the utility would incur an NRA, and the accounting treatment for any incurred NRAs.

In addition to the required annual Customer Service Performance Indicator (CSPI) reports, a subset of utilities file monthly CSPI reports, which staff of the Department of Public Service uses to track and monitor a utility’s progress and performance on various metrics throughout the calendar year in order to ensure the fair and appropriate treatment of utility customers. Beyond confirming whether an NRA should be assessed, Staff’s annual audits review the accuracy of the utilities’ reported data and uncover any potential shortcomings or improvements that should be addressed in utility processes or procedures. Staff made 14 total recommendations as part of the 2025 annual audit, including suggestions related to data validation, granularity of reported data, and enhancing customer feedback channels.

Beginning in 2024, all major utilities subject to NRA mechanisms associated with their customer service performance have utilized a basis point system to determine customer service-related NRA values. Basis point values are equivalent to a change of one-hundredth of one percent of the equity portion of a utility’s rate base. Basis point values allow for the corresponding incentive dollar amounts to change year over year according to the relative size and characteristics of each utility, rather than remaining at a fixed dollar value.

Each of the following utilities failed to meet at least one of their customer service performance metrics in 2025:

• New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) failed to meet its Customer Satisfaction Survey metric, resulting in an NRA of 19 basis points or approximately $6.65 million. Given that NYSEG had failed its Customer Satisfaction Survey metric in 2024, in accordance with the adopted rate agreement, the 2025 Customer Satisfaction Survey metric NRA will be doubled from 19 basis points to 38 basis points, or approximately $13.3 million.
• Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation (RG&E) failed to meet its Customer Satisfaction Survey metric target, incurring NRAs totaling 19 basis points or approximately $4.03 million dollars.  Similar to NYSEG, RG&E failed to meet its 2024 performance target for the Customer Satisfaction Survey metric; therefore, the NRA incurred by RG&E for this metric will be doubled to 38 basis points, or approximately $8.06 million.
• Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation failed its Customer Satisfaction Index, PSC Complaint Rate, and Call Answer Rate metrics, incurring NRAs totaling 34 basis points, or approximately $4.7 million.
• Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation d/b/a National Grid did not meet its Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey, Small/Medium Commercial and Industrial Customer Satisfaction Survey, or Call Answer Rate targets, thus incurring NRAs of 36 basis points, or approximately $16.97 million.
• Liberty Utilities (St. Lawrence Gas) Corporation (Liberty SLG) failed to meet its Customer Satisfaction Survey target, incurring an NRA of 5 basis points, or approximately $38,744.
• KeySpan Gas East Corporation d/b/a National Grid (KEDLI) failed to meet its Call Answer Rate target, incurring an NRA of 5 basis points, or approximately $1.72 million.
• The Brooklyn Union Gas Company d/b/a National Grid NY (KEDNY) failed to meet its Call Answer Rate target, incurring an NRA of 10 basis points, or approximately $5.31 million.

NYSEG and RG&E have filed a petition with the Commission requesting waiver of the NRAs for their 2025 Customer Satisfaction Survey metric performances. These companies attributed their underperformance to external influences, such as economic conditions, storm severity, and post-COVID recovery, and argued in favor of categorizing neutral responses as satisfied for the purposes of calculating customer satisfaction scores. This approach would not be consistent with the process specified in the applicable rate plan. This petition is pending before the Commission for consideration.

While the above utilities failed to meet their customer service metric targets in 2025, several other New York utilities were successful in meeting or exceeding their customer service performance targets. Last year, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., Corning Natural Gas Corporation, Liberty Utilities (New York Water) Corporation (Liberty Water), Orange and Rockland Utilities, National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation (NFG), and Veolia Water New York Inc. (Veolia) met the customer service performance measures established within their respective rate plans. PSEG LI, the utility service provider on Long Island, met most of its customer service metrics.

Documents regarding this proceeding may be obtained by going to the Search section of the Commission’s website at www.dps.ny.gov, under ‘Commission Files’, and entering Case Number 26-M-0035 in the input box labeled “Search by Case Number”.  Many libraries offer free Internet access. Commission documents may also be obtained from the Commission’s Files Office, 14th floor, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12223 (518-474-2500). If you have difficulty understanding English, please call us at 1-800-342-3377 for free language assistance services regarding this press release. For more information, you may also visit your service provider’s website.