Under this billing option, Choices for You suppliers include
their charges on the North Shore Gas
bill. For each billing period, North Shore Gas
will post the consumption, billing dates and other billing information in
PEGASys® for the Choices for You supplier to use in calculating charges.
The supplier will have up to three business days to post charges in PEGASys.
Once the supplier submits the charges (or at the close of the three business
days), North Shore Gas will create
the customer's bill. Additionally, residential customers that receive
Federal Funds for their utility bills
will have available monies automatically applied to LDC Supplier charges.
If you would like to use the LDC Billing Option, please contact
Gas Transportation Services
for the LDC Billing Services contract.
North Shore Gas
Choices for You Program
c/o Meter To Bill - P129
231 West Michigan
Milwaukee, WI 53203-2918
- Overview of the LDC Billing Option.
- Instructions on how to use the
PEGASys reports and ledgers.
- File layouts of the PEGASys
ledgers and reports used with this option.
- Explanation on how customer
payments are remitted to Choices for You Suppliers
Overview
The LDC Billing Option is an optional service available to Choices for You suppliers.
Suppliers can choose to use this service for all, none, or some of their customers.
Suppliers display their charges on a page separate from
North Shore Gas' delivery charges.
Initiation of service
To begin using this service, the Choices for You supplier must submit
a signed Billing Services Contract to
North Shore Gas. The supplier will
be given the option to create up to ten (10) descriptions to be used as
Charge Description Lines on the customers' bills. The Choices for You
supplier must submit at least one (1) Charge Description Line at the time
the Billing Services Contract is submitted. Additional description lines
can be added at a later time. A time period of five (5) business days is
required before the requested description lines will be available.
Cost
Every month, suppliers will be assessed the following fees under the
LDC Billing Option:
- Basic service: $0.50 per bill
- Additional billing lines: $0.02 per line per bill
- Bill messages: $0.01 per line per bill
Basic service includes a maximum of five charge description Lines per
bill. The same description lines do not have to be used for each customer
or for each month. Up to two (2) additional description lines — for a
total of seven (7) lines — can be used on each bill. Up to five (5)
bill message lines can be displayed on each customer bill.
Billing indicator
The Choices for You supplier can choose which customers will be billed
using this service. The LDC Billing Indicator can be set during sign up
to either "Yes" to bill the account under this service or "No" to bill the
account on a separate bill issued by the supplier. The supplier can change
the LDC Billing Indicator for any customer at any time by submitting an
Amend through the PEGASys Enrollment Ledger. The effective date of the
change in billing option status will be on the customer's next meter read
date. See the Enrollment Instructions for more details.
Bill creation
Each business day, by 8 a.m. CST, usage will be available for all
customer accounts that had a meter reading the prior day. By 5 p.m. CST on
the third business day (Charges Due Date), if the Choices for You supplier
has not submitted charges (which can be zero) to
North Shore Gas, the billing window
will be closed. The supplier can either put that month's charges on the next
month's bill (as part of the five lines) or bill them separately. The
accounts for which suppliers do not submit charges will be marked
accordingly.
Example of 3-business day window:
- 8 a.m. Monday Meter reads are available
- 5 p.m. Wednesday Billing window closes
The bills will be created the earliest of (1) the day the Choices for You supplier
submits charges or (2) the Charges Due Date. The payment due date will be based on the
billing date (date the bill is issued).
Supplier charges
The charges for services provided by the Choices for You Supplier, will
be calculated by the supplier. North Shore Gas
will not make tax or late payment charge calculations for the supplier. If
the supplier does not submit charges to be billed, the second page will be
printed with a message indicating that supplier charges were not available
and the Supplier will not be charged a billing fee ($0.50) for this bill.
However, if the supplier submitted bill messages, these will be displayed on
the bill and the supplier will be charged the per Bill Message charge for
each line. In either case, the supplier's name and phone number will be
displayed on the second page.
The first page of the bill will continue to show
North Shore Gas charges and the payment
coupon. The total Amount Due from the customer will be a total of
North Shore Gas delivery and other
charges (from the first page) and the supplier's charges (total from the
second page). Any payments made by the customer for
North Shore Gas' charges and the
supplier's charges will be included in the payment received amount shown on
the bill.
A supplier can submit an Adjustment to a customer's account at any time
during the month. The Adjustment will immediately affect the Total Balance
Due by the customer. All Adjustments submitted between billing periods
will be netted together and printed on the front page of the customer's
bill as "Adjustment-Supplier."
Note: Charges and Adjustments can have either a positive or
negative value. The benefit of using Charges versus Adjustments is that
Charges are shown separately on the customer's bill. Also, Debit Adjustments
are not included in automatic payment withdrawals. Therefore, if a Supplier
didn't post a charge to a customer's account during the open billing period,
it is recommended that the charge be added to the next billing period's
charge(s). If a Debit Adjustment is used, the customer will be required to
write a separate check to North Shore Gas
to pay for the charge.
Supplier bill messages
The Choices for You supplier can submit up to five lines of free form
text to be displayed in the Supplier Message Section of the customer's
bill. Each line will be limited to 100 fixed length characters. (See the
Choices for You LDC Billing Option PEGASys Instructions for format
details).
North Shore Gas will periodically audit the
bill messages submitted by suppliers as allowed under the Billing Services Contract.
Cancel/rebills
North Shore Gas may need to cancel (or deduct)
usage from a prior billing period. This activity will appear as a 'Deduct' in the
PEGASys Billing Ledger. In most cases, but not all, a rebill for the same billing
period will also appear simultaneously in the Billing Ledger.
Multiple bill consumption records
North Shore Gas may issue a bill that covers
multiple billing periods. If Detail records are available they will be posted in
PEGASys Billing Ledger. In all cases, charges must be submitted against the Master
record.
Note: The Net consumption of the Master record does not include the deducted
therms if the Detail records consist of both Deducted and Consumption records. The
Deducted records cancel previously billed therms not included in this Master record.
However, if the Master records only include Detailed Deducted records, then the
consumption of the Master record will be the sum of the deducted therms.
Customer payments
Customer payments will be applied to receivables in the following manner:
- Oldest North Shore Gas utility service receivable
- Oldest Supplier receivable
- Current North Shore Gas utility service charges
- Current Supplier charges
Oldest receivables will be applied in bucket succession (i.e., first
North Shore Gas 90-day then
supplier 90-day, second North Shore Gas
60-day then Supplier 60-day, and third
North Shore Gas 30-day then supplier
30-day).
Customer payments (active payment plan customers)
Customer payments will be applied to receivables in the following manner:
- Current Utility charges (0 day)
- Current Supplier charges (0 day)
- Oldest North Shore Gas utility service receivable
- Oldest Supplier receivable
Oldest receivables will be applied in bucket succession (i.e., first
North Shore Gas 90-day then Supplier 90-day,
second North Shore Gas 60-day then Supplier
60-day, and third North Shore Gas 30-day then
Supplier 30-day).
LIHEAP payments
Eligible Choices for You residential customers can apply for and receive federal
grant funds payable toward their utility bills. Suppliers that participate in the LDC
Billing Option will have available monies applied automatically against their charges
and will not be required to submit LiHeap Claims.
Overage adjustments
If the Choices for You supplier submits an Adjustment or Charge with a negative
value greater than the total arrears due to the supplier from the customer, the
remaining amount will be treated as an Overage Adjustment. Overage Adjustments are
treated as a customer payment and would follow the above payment schedule.
Transfer of account receivables
Supplier receivables will not be transferred between accounts unless the accounts
belong to the same customer. This will most commonly occur when a customer moves or is
closing one of multiple accounts. The utility will set up a transfer relationship
between the accounts. In rare cases, multiple accounts may have an ongoing transfer
relationship. The original account will be referenced as the "From Account" and
the new (or other) account will be called the "To Account."
All transfers of receivables will display in the C For U Transferred Account
Receivables Report based on the following rules:
| Activity type |
Transfer type |
Transfer activity date |
| Billing (Debits only) |
Transfer Out |
Date the From Account bills |
| Transfer In |
Date the To Account bills |
| Debit Adjustment |
Transfer Out |
Date the Adjustment posts to the From Account |
| Transfer In |
Date the Adjustment posts to the From Account |
| Credit Adjustment |
Adj Transfer Out |
Date the Adjustment posts to the From Account |
| Adj Transfer In |
Date the Adjustment posts to the From Account |
The transfers will display in the C For U Account Transaction History report based
on the following rules:
Billing or debit adjustments — positive values:
The activity will display in PEGASys on both accounts. The "From Account" will
show the original activity type of (Debit) Billing or Debit Adjustment and another
activity type of Transfer Out. These activities cancel each other and the net balance
from this activity on the "From Account" is zero.
The "To Account" will display the activity type of Transfer In. No distinction will
be made to show if the Transfer In amount was from an original Billing or Debit
Adjustment activity type.
Credit adjustments — negative values:
Because the activity is not immediately associated with a bill, the activity
will not display in the "From Account." The "To Account" will display an activity
type of either Credit Adjustment or Overage Adjustment depending on if the
"To Account" has outstanding receivables due to the Choices for You supplier
under any Charge Code or not.
Credit billing — negative values:
Credit Billing (or negative charges) will not transfer between accounts. The
negative charges will first cancel any outstanding receivables due to the
Choices for You supplier under any Charge Code on the "From Account." If a negative value
remains, an Overage Adjustment will be created. Although the customer may see a
credit balance transfer to the "To Account," the supplier will not see the
Overage Adjustment transfer in PEGASys. If a supplier receivable remains on
the "From Account," it will transfer to the "To Account" as described in the
above "Billing or Debit Adjustment" section.
Payment plans
If a customer is put on a payment plan, any Choices for You supplier arrears on the
customer's account will be included in the installment calculation. There are two types
of Plans defined below:
- Current Plus: the customer is required to pay their current bill (utility
Supplier charges) plus an installment towards their arrears.
- Levelized Plus: the customer is required to pay their utility charges
budgeted over a period, their current Supplier charges, plus an installment towards
their arrears.
Collection on behalf of Choices for You supplier
North Shore Gas will continue to collect
outstanding customer receivables on behalf of Choices for You suppliers up to 45 days
after the due date of a customer's final bill with the supplier. At the end of the
45-day period, receivables will be returned to supplier.
