Picking Pockets Any Way They Can, Have Cake Eat It Too Dept. 0
Depreciation is an economic and accounting concept that allows businesses to spread out the cost of a durable asset, such as a bulldozer, over time for tax and accounting purposes.
Delmarva Power wants to turn it into real money.
The meters provide Delmarva with remote access to meters, eliminating the need for readers to physically visit the meters to read them. It also allows the utility to check remotely if a home or business is receiving power, as it did during Hurricane Irene. That means earlier notice of outages.
The installation cost the utility $72 million, and Delmarva reports much of that was offset by savings, such as by no longer using meter readers. In Delmarva’s $31.8 million PSC rate case, the utility said it would only seek $174,000 immediately.
But in the filing, Delmarva also asked the PSC to create a process that would later allow them to recoup what is currently estimated as $39 million associated with the meters, over 15 years.
(snip)
Of Delmarva’s $39 million proposed charge to ratepayers, $26.5 million is to reimburse the company for the lost value of the old meters, which company officials said had not been fully depreciated.
So they upgrade the meters to save money, then want the customers to pay for the old meters because the old meters cost money when they were purchased Lord knows how many years ago and still have a value on paper.
Give them the kewpie doll for creative corporate conniving.
