West Virginia Public Service Commission Story Archives - Page 3 of 10

Newly Revealed Data Shows Problems With Frontier's W.Va. Landline Phone System

A fully unredacted version of an audit of the state’s main privately-run, state-regulated landline provider was made public by a science and technology website Thursday, indicating the phone company faces a serious shrinking customer and revenue base in the Mountain state.

According to Ars Technica, the audit was improperly redacted and all information was visible after copying and pasting the text into a separate document.

The audit was publicly available until recently on the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s website, which indicated the improperly redacted report was “submitted by Frontier,” the phone company at the focus of the audit.

“Frontier operates in a competitive industry and, therefore, took steps as permitted by law to protect its competitively sensitive information,” company spokesman Javier Mendoza said in an email Thursday evening. “Frontier is investigating whether there was an error in the redaction, filing or copying process of the report.”

Blacked out information included the company’s worst performing areas, workforce concerns, the age of its network, a huge drop in customers and a dour glimpse at the company’s poorly performing internet services in West Virginia.

Frontier was permitted to file a redacted version of the more-than-160-page audit, which was completed by a third-party firm, on March 25, after submitting a confidential, unredacted version of the document to Public Service Commission a week earlier.

Commissioners ordered an investigation nearly two years ago and selected auditing firm Schumaker & Company in August 2019.

Company attorneys stated Frontier redacted the audit because it wanted to protect “trade secrets” and any other information that competitors could use to take business and revenue from the telecommunications group.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting filed a Freedom of Information Act request on April 2, requesting the commission make the information publicly available.

The commission asked Frontier to comment, and staff then replied to WVPB’s FOIA request on Thursday, saying the commission needs time to “deliberate, decide and issue an order” regarding Frontier’s request to maintain a redacted, public report.

The commission’s executive secretary said she anticipates the commission will issue an order to Frontier, regarding the matter, soon.

Frontier is supposed to respond to the report by April 20, and share a plan for how it will address issues identified in the report.

As of Friday morning, the improperly redacted version of the report was no longer available on the Public Service Commission’s website.

Frontier Hid Issues With Weak Points, Shrinking Customer Base, Internet Services

According to the report, the copper cable network is more than 49,000 miles long. It was built to serve 2 million customers, but the redacted version of the report shows the company only has around 300,000 people now.

Since Frontier acquired roughly 600,000 new access lines from Verizon, the state’s former main provider, in 2010, the report shows Frontier had lost roughly 37 percent of its total customers by 2017.

Landline phones are not the most popular nor lucrative telecommunications option – in 2017, the federal National Center for Health Statistics reported roughly 53 percent of West Virginia adults were using wireless services exclusively, while only 22 percent of West Virginia adults were using landline services exclusively or most of the time.

For West Virginians without reliable access to cellular services, landline phones are still vital for local businesses, daily use and emergency response. The Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, a union representing Frontier field employees, noted this in March 2018, when the group requested the Public Service Commission order an investigation into Frontier’s maintenance of its landline network.

“CWA started this process because of the condition of the copper plant and problems with service quality,” said Edward Mooney, vice president of the regional CWA district, in a written statement to WVPB in March. “In a state like West Virginia, the copper network is a critical portion of the telecommunications system for people and businesses. It is a network that requires investment in both people and its infrastructure.”

Almost half the network is 36 to 47 years old. There are roughly 952,000 areas of the network that are susceptible to “moisture, corrosion, loose connections, etc. that may cause interruptions of service to customers,” according to the report.

The report notes a higher trouble reporting rate in its southern coverage area. Generally, the network performs better in the northern part of the state.

Although auditors said the company has a sufficient number of staff now, redacted lines in the report said Frontier is slated to lose 50 percent of its experienced field employees over the next five years, due to retirement. Schumaker & Company, the private auditing firm that wrote the report, recommend the company come up with a plan to find and train more people soon.

Auditors also recommended the company take on more original maintenance projects – according to the report, Frontier is not doing enough preventative maintenance work on its copper cable network for landline phones in West Virginia.

While the West Virginia Public Service Commission regulates landline rates and services, the commission has not been given authority by the state Legislature to have a say in broadband services.

Frontier cited this as a reason to redact all portions of the audit detailing the company’s efforts to sell internet offerings in West Virginia. Staff for the commission recommended making that information public on March 31, noting a “large amount of comments from impacted customers throughout the state of West Virginia” involved “Frontier’s provisioning of internet services throughout the state and the speeds of internet service provided.”

Redacted portions included that Frontier is not offering broadband over fiber to end users in West Virginia, meaning its broadband speeds are limited to DSL speeds.

“While both companies present a high “availability” for their broadband, speeds are relatively slow and customers have complained about the speed and the reliability of the service,” according to redacted parts of the audit. “Frontier, like many local exchange companies, continues to lose telephone and broadband customers to other providers.”

The audit also stated that between December 2010 and December 2017, Frontier lost 1,000 broadband customers a month since April 2017.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Editors Note: The current story image replaces a previous image of foreign power lines.

Bill Giving More Control To PSC Aims to Address Failing Water Systems

In an effort to address water issues plaguing rural West Virginia, the state Public Service Commission is supporting a bill that would give the group more statutory authority to assist and order the acquisition of failing water and wastewater utilities throughout the state.

House Bill 4953 addresses a “tsunami” of issues that Amy Swann with the West Virginia Rural Water Association says local utilities have been facing for years. Those issues include aging infrastructure, a shrinking consumer base and a lack of federal grant opportunities, which all make funding repairs and maintenance difficult.

“Many of our [water] systems on the municipal side of things are more than 100 years old,” Swann said. She estimated many privately owned systems are more than 40 or 60 years old.

The debate comes as one northern West Virginia community, Paden City, is grappling with the effects of years-long chemical contamination.

“They’re reaching the end of their useful lives, in terms of the infrastructure in the ground,” Swann added of the water and wastewater systems.

Public Service Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Lane said Monday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that many small water systems cannot provide good water and their infrastructure is failing. Delegates in that committee passed the bill on to the House Finance Committee Monday with a favorable recommendation.

Lane also attended a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Tuesday evening, during which senators agreed to pass Senate Bill 739, which consists of the same language as the House version, on to the full Senate for consideration, with a favorable recommendation.

According to self-reported numbers the PSC published in 2018, there were 269 publicly owned water utilities, 18 privately owned water utilities and 29 water authorities and associations in West Virginia.

Regarding wastewater systems, the same report said there were 265 publicly owned sewer utilities for wastewater and 36 privately owned utilities in 2018.

The state Bureau for Public Health and the state Department of Environmental Protection are responsible for tracking which utilities are violating state and federal regulations.

Several state-issued boiled water advisories remain in effect daily in areas where a local utility is out of compliance. A study last fall found 378 of roughly 448 active utilities between 2016 and 2019 had at one point violated the federal Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. The organizations that conducted the study reported more than 912,000 West Virginians at one point in those three years drank unsafe water.

When a utility is struggling in an area or a utility is unable to provide clean water, the commission’s options are limited. Currently, if the Public Service Commission has received several complaints from an area with a failing utility, Chairwoman Lane said the commission will address a local circuit court about ordering another utility to take over.

“The problem is, a lot of other utilities don’t want to take on a failing system,” she said. “This [bill] would allow us to make another utility take on that failing system.”

Bill Details

House Bill 4953 and the Senate version of the bill would allow the Public Service Commission to create a list every year of distressed and failing utilities.

The bill defines a distressed utility as one that continually violates state regulations, hasn’t complied within a reasonable timeline to a notice of that violation and is unable to fulfill its financial obligations.

A failing utility, according to the bill, is a distressed utility that the public service commission has decided to replace with another more capable utility.

Once a utility is deemed either failing or distressed, the bills require the Public Service Commission to hold a public hearing to discuss possible improvements, or the possibility of an acquisition.

Following that hearing, the commission will either provide assistance or identify and appoint a capable utility to take over. Both the failed and the newly appointed utility will then discuss what price the new utility will pay to take over the failed utility’s service area.

Costs and Opportunities

The bill mentions a few “cost recovery mechanisms” to help the utilities that take over a failed utility’s area, to make up for what they spend on acquiring the systems, improving and maintaining them.

A nonprofit organization could be eligible for a grant from a Distressed Utility Account created by the bill, which will hold $5 million from an infrastructure fund currently under the Water Development Authority’s jurisdiction.

A for-profit organization could qualify for below-market loans from the state.

In the long run, Lane said she believes the bill will benefit the utilities who engage in a take over, as improved water and wastewater systems will attract more consumers.

“Eventually, the more customers that utilities have, the better they are,” Lane said. “It means that they have more revenue, and the more revenue that they have, then the more money that can put back into their systems to provide better service.”

According to Swann, director of the West Virginia Rural Water Association, the bill would allow the Public Service Commission to take a more active role in assisting or improving water systems that only continue to age as time continues to pass and no improvements are made.

“They feel like they’ve been abandoned,” Swann said of consumers in rural areas with inadequate access to clean water and reliable wastewater systems. “That’s never been true, but I can see how they would have that perception.”

House Bill 4953 was referred to the House Finance Committee for consideration before it reaches the full House for a vote. Senate Bill 739 will proceed to the full Senate for consideration.

Lane said Tuesday the Public Service Commission also is following Senate Bill 551 that the House Government and Organization Committee referred to the House Finance Committee. This bill would allow for incentives to small, publicly owned municipal utilities looking to merge with or hand their systems over to a larger utility. National utility organization American Water has publicly supported this legislation.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

West Virginia American Water Reaches Deal in Rate Increase

West Virginia American Water says it and state Public Service Commission staff have a tentative agreement over an increase to monthly bills.

The company tells news outlets in a statement the deal would increase rates by 14 percent, which would be $6.69 more for an average customer. The commission still has to approve the proposal, and if they do, customers would experience increased rates starting Feb. 25.

The company originally sought a 24 percent increase.

A company official went before the commission Tuesday to ask for support over the increase. Rod Nevirauskas, rates director for American Water, told commissioners the company is losing revenue as it’s investing millions of dollars in infrastructure and customers are using less water.

Under the agreement, the company couldn’t ask for another increase until 2021.

Residents Speak Out Against Mountaineer Gas Pipeline and Rockwool at Public Hearing in Shepherdstown

The West Virginia Public Service Commission traveled to Shepherdstown this week for a public hearing to address concerns about a pipeline expansion project in the Eastern Panhandle. About a hundred people showed up to rally before the event. Dozens went on to speak during the hearing – and many took the opportunity to mention the controversial Rockwool manufacturing company.

Martinsburg resident Stewart Acuff was one of several people who spoke against the pipeline and Rockwool at the PSC’s hearing Wednesday night.

“The people of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia have said over and over and over again in huge numbers, we don’t want this damn pipeline, and we don’t want Rockwool,” Acuff said.

Many attendees asked the PSC commissioners not to approve Mountaineer Gas’ expansion pipeline into the Eastern Panhandle.

That pipeline is being built between Berkeley Springs and Martinsburg, and construction began in March. It will be more than 22 miles long.

Project developers Mountaineer Gas and TransCanada say the pipeline will bring natural gas to Jefferson and Morgan Counties.

Mountaineer Gas has proposed to invest nearly $120 million for infrastructure replacements and system upgrades from 2019 through 2023, including roughly $16.5 million for ongoing investments to expand and enhance service in Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.

But several residents at the hearing shared concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the Panhandle’s karst geology of sinkholes, springs and caves.

Speakers also mentioned a controversial insulation manufacturing plant being built in Ranson just a few miles from public schools and homes. The plant, Denmark-based Rockwool, will make stone wool insulation. The Ranson facility would feature two, 21-story smokestacks releasing chemicals like formaldehyde.

Rockwool has said the gas pipeline would be crucial for its operation.

“Rockwool has been working with Mountaineer Gas Company,” said General Counsel for Rockwool North America Ken Cammaroto. “And we have committed to being a loyal gas customer to Mountaineer Gas.”

Of the roughly 100 people who came out to the hearing, about five spoke in favor of the pipeline and Rockwool plant.

PSC Communication Director Susan Small says the commission will now have two months before making a ruling on December 28. The public can still submit formal comments on the issue online.

Public Comment to be Heard on Mountaineer Gas Proposal

The West Virginia Public Service Commission will hear public comment next month on a Mountaineer Gas Co. natural gas line proposal.

The company wants to invest almost $120 million for upgrades starting next year and continuing through 2023. The PSC said in a news release that the proposed upgrades include $16.5 million for ongoing expansion and enhancement of service in Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.

The PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division has been granted intervenor status. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8.

The public comment hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Frank Arts Center at Shepherdstown University.

Appalachian Power's Tax Savings Plan Questioned at Hearing

Appalachian Power’s plan to use federal tax cut savings to mainly offset program costs is being questioned by an agency that represents West Virginia ratepayers.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Appalachian’s regulatory services and finance managing director, John Scalzo, was questioned Tuesday at a state Public Service Commission hearing on tax cut impacts. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed last year lowers the corporate federal income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

The company plans to use around $235 million in savings for projects such as an economic development pilot program. It also plans to give consumers $30 million over three years as credit on bills. The state Consumer Advocate Division says savings should go to consumers immediately. Scalzo says the company’s plan will create more stable rates.