D.C.’s Public Service Commission on Wednesday ordered Washington Gas Light Company to disburse $522,189 in unclaimed funds to the Washington Area Fuel Fund and the Greater Washington Urban League.
Payment of the funds, which will be used to benefit low-income residential customers during the winter heating season, are in response to an investigation the commission launched four years ago of allegations that WGL made $2.4 million in unauthorized payments to competitive service providers that over-delivered natural gas supplies.
Due to the over-collection of payments from District ratepayers, WGL issued refunds to 33,590 inactive customers totaling $452,924, and bill credits in the amount of $1,457,579 to 73,268 current customer accounts. However, WGL reported that a total of $522,189 remained unclaimed.
This prompted WGL and Office of the People’s Counsel to recommend to the commission to donate the unclaimed funds equally between WAFF and the Urban League in the amount of $261,094.50 each.
As a condition for receiving the disbursement of the funds, the WAFF and the Urban League must submit an annual statement with WGL indicating the number of low-income natural gas customers in D.C. who received the funds, and the average amount each customer received.
The order directs WGL to disburse the funds within 15 days and to file a final report confirming disbursement.
For more information, go to the commission’s website at dcpsc.org.