City Reaches Agreement to Conclude Seattle City Light Class Action Lawsuit

Public Prosecutor Pete Holmes | Debra Smith, Seattle City Light CEO

Contact:
Dan Nolte, Public Prosecutor’s Office Communications, [email protected]
Julie Moore, Seattle City Light Communications, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2021

SEATTLE – The city of Seattle reached a $ 3.5 million settlement agreement in a lawsuit in August 2019 alleging that Seattle City Light improperly billed some of its customers based on estimated power usage. A motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement was filed today with King County Supreme Court Justice Kristin Richardson and requires the judge’s approval for the settlement to take effect.

The settlement will be split into two funds for qualified City Light private customers (class members) who have received one or more estimated bills followed by an invoice based on actual usage between August 21, 2015 and the plaintiff based on certain costs and legal fees of the plaintiff June 8, 2020. City Light estimates the potential class could include approximately 300,000 residential accounts; The amount each customer can receive depends on the number of eligible claims. As part of the settlement agreement, neither party recognizes liability and any group member can unsubscribe from the agreement by submitting an opt-out request in good time.

Seattle District Attorney Pete Holmes said, “Considering that legal fees alone could overshadow the settlement amount if this case were brought to trial and then appealed, this was the right step. I am pleased that the majority of the settlement amount will be made available to existing City Light customers in the form of a future invoice credit, and I am grateful to the team that helped resolve this case. “

“We expect customers to pay for the electricity they use, no more, no less,” said Debra Smith, CEO and general manager of Seattle City Light. “Since joining Seattle City Light in October 2018, we’ve made a renewed commitment to putting our customers first and proactively addressing areas we missed out on. Even before this lawsuit, we admitted that technological challenges in 2016-2018 resulted in some customers having unusually high bills and delayed problem resolution. We have prioritized handling these cases and improving processes to avoid future issues. I am happy to resolve this complaint in such a way that money is returned to our customers. “

Billing details

The $ 3.5 million settlement will be split into two qualified City Light Individual Funds based on certain charges and plaintiff’s legal fees, which will be followed by one or more estimated bills between August 21, 2015 and June 8 of a bill based on actual usage, 2020. Approximately 25% of the net bill will be allocated to a “True Up” fund for retail customers who have received at least one estimated bill, followed by a bill based on actual usage. The remaining 75% of the net billing is allocated to an “increased bill” fund for private customers who have received an invoice for which the average kilowatt hours per day was 400% or more than their average daily kilowatt consumption for a comparable billing period. The city is demanding that any remaining funds unclaimed by previous customers go to the SCL Low Income Emergency Fund, which provides immediate support to customers who are behind on their utility bills.

City Light estimates the potential class could include around 300,000 residential accounts; the amount each customer receives depends on the number of qualifying claims. In all cases, customers must submit an application in order to receive funds. Existing customers who are eligible to participate in the settlement will receive funds in the form of a bank statement credit. Former customers who apply will receive a check.

Next Steps

Once the court has granted preliminary approval to the Settlement Agreement, potential class plaintiffs will receive a notification that will allow them to file a claim, appeal, or opt out. These notifications will likely be released before the end of the year.

The settlement manager processes claim forms and notifies City Light of customers who should receive a credit in their account. The Billing Administrator will send checks to those who submit valid claims and are not current City Light customers.

The effectiveness of the settlement and thus the distribution of funds depends on the final court approval.

background

City Light began mass launching new advanced meters for residential and commercial customers in 2017. The new advanced meters have been deployed to improve the accuracy of customer bills by reducing the use of billing estimates when a manual meter reading cannot be completed. Given the extent of the replacement of almost all old City Light customers’ old meters with the new advanced meters, as well as the simultaneous introduction of a new version of City Light’s billing system, more electricity meters than usual were estimated in some cases. Some customers experienced higher than expected true up / catch up invoices after receiving multiple estimated invoices or no invoices at all.

While some customers have had inflated bills, there is no evidence of widespread billing problems. City Light encourages customers who are having difficulty paying their utility bills to contact the customer service center at (206) 684-3000 to set up a payment plan or access available billing support for income qualified customers.

As part of the settlement agreement, City Light made additional commitments in the areas of communication, customer support, payment plans and more to improve the customer experience. These efforts build on work the utility has prioritized over the past several years to improve the customer experience, including system changes that prevent excessive consecutive estimated invoices, giving the frontline customer service staff more flexibility in setting up payment arrangements, and customer self-reliance the common utilities enter service portal. Launched in May 2020, the portal allows customers to conduct a wide variety of utility transactions and service inquiries, including signing up for payment plans and opening / closing utility accounts online. Further customer-friendly functions, including access to real-time usage data (15-minute intervals for private customers), should go online in 2022.

Also in 2020 City Light piloted a specialized customer service team to proactively contact residential customers and solve complex customer billing problems from start to finish as well as other specialized services. This pilot model is the foundation for the permanent customer service escalation team that will be established in early 2022 to tackle the toughest circumstances that City Light customers face.