GREEN MOUNTAIN POWER

SERVICE QUALITY & RELIABILITY

PERFORMANCE, MONITORING & REPORTING

FINAL PLAN

1. The purpose of this plan is to establish performance standards, and performance monitoring and reporting for electric service provided by Green Mountain Power ("GMP" or "the Company") in all its Vermont territories. The plan shall be referred to throughout this document as the "Plan" or "SQRP."
2. The parties to this Plan are GMP and the Vermont Department of Public Service ("DPS").
3. Section II of the Plan establishes performance areas in which GMP agrees to monitor, report and be subject to minimum performance standards. Except where otherwise specified, Section III of the plan establishes minimum performance standards in each performance area.
4. The Plan shall remain in effect for two years from the date of approval by the PSB. Upon conclusion of the two years, the parties agree to adopt a successor plan which may include financial penalties and/or incentives tied to performance. Financial consequences shall be tied to performance-based regulation, if permitted by statute. In the absence of statutory authority, financial consequences shall be tied to GMP’s return on equity.
5. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section I, Paragraph D, nothing in this Plan shall preclude the use of any other remedies available under law for addressing substandard performance.
6. In the event that GMP opens it territory to retail choice during the life of this Plan, the parties acknowledge additional and/or different standards may be necessary to monitor service delivery changes attendant to restructured service delivery. The parties agree to negotiate such additional standards should the need arise. Modifications to the Plan under this paragraph shall be submitted to the PSB for approval.
7. Section V of the Plan contains service guarantees to be offered by GMP. The company shall, within 30 days of PSB approval of the Plan, file such tariff amendments as are necessary to implement negotiated service guarantees. Such guarantees shall not be effective unless the PSB grants tariff approval.
8. In addition to the performance standards and measurement set forth in this document, GMP agrees to the following time frames for response to consumer and regulatory complaints:
1. GMP shall provide a substantive response to consumer complaints expressed directly to the company within 14 calendar days of receipt by any method of contact.
2. GMP shall provide a substantive response to consumer complaints from DPS within 14 calendar days.
3. If GMP needs additional time to respond fully to a complaint from a consumer or from DPS, the Company shall within the initial 14-day period request a specific additional time for response and shall provide a full resolution within the requested additional time.

GMP's service quality and reliability will be subject to standards in the following performance areas:

1. Call answer performance measures:
1. Percent of customers reaching a company representative within 30 seconds during normal business hours (excluding outage calls).
2. Percent of calls abandoned during normal business hours (excluding outage calls).
3. Percent of calls reaching a busy signal during normal business hours.
4. Percent of outage calls answered (live or automated).
2. Billing performance measures:
1. Percent of bills not rendered within five days of the scheduled billing cycle.
3. Meter reading performance measures:
1. Percent of meter readings found inaccurate.
2. Percent of actual meter readings per month.
4. Work completion performance measures:
1. Average days to completion of a line extension from the date the customer is ready.
2. Percent of customer requested work completed on or before promised delivery date.
3. Average delay days for missed appointments.
5. Customer satisfaction measures:
1. Percent of customer satisfaction following customer-initiated contact with the company (report, request, inquiry, complaint).
2. Percent of customers satisfied following completion of customer requested work.
6. Worker safety performance measures:
1. Reportable worker injuries per thousand miles of primary distribution line.
2. Employee lost days per thousand miles of distribution line.
7. Reliability performance measures:
1. System average interruption frequency, both system-wide and for and each district.
2. Customer average interruption duration, both system-wide and for each district.

H. Payment posting measure:

1. GMP shall begin performance monitoring in accordance with this SQRP on May 1, 2001. Reporting periods shall be calendar quarters, with quarterly reports submitted to DPS by the last day of the month following the end of each quarter, except for the standards detailed in Section IV, Paragraphs D1, F and G, which shall be reported annually on a calendar year basis by January 31 of the following year. The initial quarterly report shall be for the months of May and June. In the event that the PSB has not yet given approval by May 1, 2001, the company shall commence maintaining data necessary to comply with the Plan as if such approval had been given, making modifications when and if the PSB requires any changes.

1. Except as provided in Paragraph A, performance results shall be aggregated monthly and quarterly, and shall be reported quarterly to the DPS. The parties shall jointly develop an electronic reporting format.
2. Quarterly reports shall include both monthly and quarterly averages. Quarterly averages shall be derived from raw data, not by averaging monthly averages. Achievement of minimum standards shall be determined on the basis of a 12-month rolling average updated quarterly. A minimum performance standard shall be considered met if, in each quarter’s reporting, the 12-month rolling average met or exceeded the standard.
3. Notwithstanding Paragraph C, where quarterly performance falls more than ten percent below any standard, or where performance does not meet any standard for two consecutive quarters, GMP shall within 30 days of the end of the quarter in which this provision is triggered, submit a corrective action plan indicating how it will remediate the failed standard.
4. Performance shall be evaluated and reported to one decimal place for all performance areas unless otherwise specified. Actual performance shall be rounded up when the second decimal place is more than 5. GMP shall retain all of its reports that support the results for each of the performance areas for a period of not less than 24 months after the results are reported. GMP shall provide these reports upon request to DPS.
5. GMP shall review with the DPS any change to GMP's measurement protocol or to the internal reporting methods that are used to obtain the data measured prior to GMP's implementation of such changes. If the DPS and GMP are unable to agree on the changes requested, nothing in this Plan shall preclude DPS from seeking appropriate relief from the PSB. GMP shall have an affirmative duty to report missing data or other events that could reasonably affect the quality of the data at the time the Company becomes aware of such events. Any data related to the SQRP reported to DPS that reflects significantly altered measurement procedures or internal data acquisition methods that have not been agreed to between GMP and DPS shall be subject to challenge and potential exclusion from results.
6. GMP may seek a waiver of any applicable performance standard from the PSB. A waiver may only be granted based upon exceptional circumstances. The burden shall be on GMP to demonstrate that its level of preparedness and response was reasonable in light of the cause of the failure.
7. Definitions:
1. Disconnect/Reconnect: Electric power in a location must temporarily be disconnected and reconnected at the customer’s request by the physical disconnection of the electric service cable, usually to ensure safety during work being completed at the location.
2. New Line Extensions: One or more poles must be installed to carry a primary distribution circuit; and/or a primary underground distribution circuit must be installed for the purposes of servicing new customer(s).
3. New Service: A primary circuit exists and only a transformer and/or a secondary cable are needed to be installed.
4. Normal Business Hours: "Normal business hours" are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday excluding days on which legal holidays are observed and GMP is closed to routine business operations.
5. Street Light Maintenance: GMP makes repairs to GMP-owned outdoor lights (rental units on private property) or municipal lights.
6. Street Light New Installation: GMP installs GMP-owned outdoor lighting at the request of a customer.
7. Temporary service: A secondary service is installed for a customer-specified period of time. Primary conductors exist to the site.
8. Weather-related delays: "Weather-related delays" shall mean any of the following conditions:

1. As defined by the Agreement as amended between Green Mountain Power Corp and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local #300, Article XVIII, Section D which states:

Except in an emergency, the Company will not require employees to do construction or maintenance work in exposed locations out-of-doors during heavy or continuous storms or excessively cold weather, unless such work is necessary to protect life, property or continuity of essential service. In maintaining continuity of employment, the Company reserves the right to determine the type and location of all duties to be performed by outside hourly employees during inclement weather. Such duties will include inside work as is available and which the employee is capable of performing or, when practicable, the time may be devoted to safety, first aid or other instructions.

2. Periods when roads are impassable to construction vehicles following heavy rain, snow or spring thaw conditions.
3. Unavailability of crews due to service restoration for outages.

1. GMP and the DPS shall meet regularly to discuss service quality issues, trends in service quality data reported by GMP, issues raised by customer complaints filed with the DPS, and other policy issues relating to customer service. GMP shall initiate these meetings on a periodic basis with a goal of meeting no less than quarterly. Meetings may occur more frequently at DPS discretion. These meetings shall focus on customer service issues raised by customer complaints filed with the DPS and by other communications to the DPS from customers. The intent of these informal meetings is to exchange information in an open and frank atmosphere, to suggest pragmatic solutions, and solve problems.

1. Call answer performance measures: All data required for call answer performance measures shall be obtained from the TASKE ACD (Automated Call Distribution) call center monitoring applications. The system reports both real time and historical call system activity to Green Mountain Power Corporation’s Customer Service number 24 hours a day. Green Mountain Power also utilizes an Integrated Voice Response system (IVR) which provides for the routing of calls and automated messaging for outages. Data are extracted on a monthly basis based on the path chosen by the customer from the IVR and modified as indicated in each specific measure below to obtain specified performance data analysis.
1. Percent of customers reaching a company representative within 30 seconds during normal business hours (excluding outage calls): This standard tracks the percentage of attempted calls to reach a company representative during normal business hours that are successful in doing so. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of non-outage calls reaching a company rep within 30 seconds

Number of non-outage attempts to reach a company rep

The minimum standard for this performance area shall be 65 percent in Year 1 and 70 percent in Year 2.

The standard shall be measured as follows: The TASKE ACD system already separates call data for those choosing to report outages. Modification will be made to eliminate calls prior to 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. Daily reports shall be run to obtain call activities for weekends and holidays and these data will be subtracted from the call statistics to obtain data specifically pertaining to normal business hours.

2. Percent of calls abandoned during normal business hours: This standard tracks the percentage of consumer attempts to reach a company representative (excluding outage-related calls) during normal business hours that are abandoned more than 30 seconds after reaching GMPs telephone system, including time in queue. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of non-outage calls abandoned > 30 seconds

Total non-outage calls

Performance in this area shall not exceed 5 percent.

The standard shall be measured as follows: Data are prepared as described in 2A above. Resulting data are cross referenced to the 2A call answer statistics to ensure data match for the calls answered and offered.

3. Percent of time calls reach a busy signal: This standard tracks the number of minutes in which all trunks are busy, preventing consumer calls from reaching GMP’s telephone system. It shall be calculated as follows:

Minutes of all trunks are busy

Total minutes

Due to technical impediments to measuring this standard effectively, the parties agree that additional time is needed to establish a workable measurement mechanism and a baseline that takes historical performance into account. Therefore, the parties shall submit a baseline and description of the monitoring methodology to the Board no later than August 1, 2001.

4. Percent of outage calls answered (live and automated): This standard tracks the percentage of attempted outage-related calls answered live or by the Integrated Voice Response system. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of outage calls attempted

Number of outage attempts reaching a live rep or the IVR

The standard for this performance area shall be 85 percent. GMP may request exclusion of performance data occurring during major storms as defined in Section IV, Paragraph G4, provided that the company can demonstrate its level of preparedness was appropriate to the circumstances.

This standard shall be measured as follows: The data are taken as reported by TASKE on a 24-hour basis to include weekends and holidays. The automated answer rate is obtained from the IVR statistics of those listening to the outage recording and hanging up prior to reaching a company representative.

2. Billing performance measures:
1. Percent of bills not rendered within five days of the scheduled billing cycle: This standard tracks the percentage of bills not rendered within five days of the scheduled billing cycle. The measurement will exclude: accounts that were activated within 10 days prior to the normal billing cycle; accounts that are scheduled to be final billed within 10 days after the normal billing cycle; sales for resale accounts; station service accounts; company use accounts. This standard shall be reported to the third decimal place. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of bills not rendered for the billing month

Total number of bills rendered for the billing month

The minimum standard for this performance area shall be 100 percent.

3. Meter reading performance measures: Green Mountain Power Corporation’s Customer Service and Billing System and Meter Reading System provide the data for the meter reading performance measures as described within each performance measure.
1. Percent of meter readings found inaccurate: This standard tracks the percentage of meter readings that were over-read or under-read, regardless of whether the customer or GMP identifies the error. This standard shall be reported to the third decimal place. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of meter readings found inaccurate

Total number of meter readings

Performance on this standard shall not exceed .035 percent found inaccurate.

The standard shall be measured as follows: Data are reported on Meter Reading adjustments made in a given month for those customer accounts that were either "Under" or "Over" read. This is then compared to the number of meters that were read in the given month of the adjustment as recorded by the Meter Reading reporting system each month. These data are accumulated on a monthly basis.

 

2. Percent of actual meter readings per month: This standard tracks the percentage of meters actually read each month in relation to the number that were scheduled to be read. It shall be calculated as follows:

Number of meters read

Number of meter readings schedule

The minimum performance standard for this performance area will be separately negotiated by August 1, 2001. Lack of historical data and seasonal influences on performance make it essential to have both winter and summer data to establish baselines. The minimum performance level will be negotiated after reviewing January-June, 2001, data.

4. Work completion performance measures:
1. Average days to completion of line extension from the date the customer is ready: This standard tracks the average number of days from the time the customer is ready for line extension to the actual completion. It will include sub-measures for commercial (commercial/industrial and developments) and residential line extensions. "Not ready" exclusions will include the following conditions that are not the responsibility of GMP: meter socket not installed; meter socket not installed correctly; energizing permit not issued; customer tree trimming not completed; underground conduit/trenching not completed. Weather-related delays will also be excluded. Performance shall be calculated as follows:

Total days to complete line extensions minus exclusions

Number of line extensions completed

The minimum performance standard for this performance area will be separately negotiated by January 1, 2002. Lack of historical data and seasonal influences on performance make it essential to have a full year of data before establishing minimum performance standards, which will be set after reviewing December 1, 2000-November 30, 2001 actual performance.

2. Percent of customer requested work completed on or before promised delivery date: This standard tracks the percentage of jobs resulting from customer requests for work that are completed on or before the promised completion date. Sub-measures include "move in" and "move outs," new service connections, temporary service, disconnects/reconnects, street light maintenance, and street light new installations. Weather-related delays will also be excluded . Performance shall be calculated as follows:

Number of jobs completed on or before promised date less exlusion

Total number of jobs completed

The minimum performance standard for this performance area shall be 90.0% in the first year of the plan and 95.0% in the second year of the plan.

The data sources for this measurement are Green Mountain Power Corporation’s Customer Service, Billing, and Work Request systems. When a customer calls for a move in, move out or a meter investigation, a service request is created for the date promised to the customer. Reports are generated monthly of all open service request and are reviewed for the following: (1) was the service request preempted by another service request, (2) was the service request not the result of a customer request but rather an internal request for service work, (3) was the request for non-regulated business activities. Those service requests found to match any of the above shall be removed from the final data report.

3. Average delay days for missed appointments: This standard tracks the average number of days of delay for the completion of work not completed on the promised date. Work completion to be included in this standard includes "moves in" and "moves out," "check readings," new service connections, temporary service, disconnects/reconnects, street light maintenance, and street light new installations. Weather-related delays will also be excluded. Performance shall be calculated as follows:

Total days of delay less exclusion

Total number of delayed jobs

Due to the availability of only four months of historical data on which to base the baseline for this standard, the parties agree to complete negotiation of the baseline by August 1, 2001, and to submit the standard to the Board for approval at that time.

E. Customer satisfaction measures:

In each of the two measures included in this section, using an independent, third-party contractor, GMP shall conduct in each year of this plan four quarterly surveys of customers who have had recent transactions with the company using the research design contained in Attachment A. Survey questions shall be supplied by DPS. GMP may add additional questions following the initial ones. GMP will allow DPS to review and have input into the technical survey procedure specifications in the Request for Proposal.

1. Percent of customer satisfaction following customer-initiated contact with the company (report, request, inquiry, complaint): This standard tracks the level of customer satisfaction following direct interaction with a CSR or other company representative resulting from any type of customer-initiated contact. The surveys will measure:

1. Level of satisfaction with the transaction
2. Level of satisfaction with the company

Although GMP has been conducting post-transaction surveys, the methodology agreed to in this standard represents a modification of the company’s historical practices to increase validity. These changes make it impossible to derive a baseline from the existing data. Therefore, GMP and DPS will separately negotiate a baseline following the second quarterly survey under the new protocol and in time to apply the baseline to the third quarterly survey.

2. Percent of customers satisfied following completion of customer requested work: This standard tracks the level of customer satisfaction following customer-requested work completed by GMP. Customer requested work includes: "check readings," "move-ins," "move-outs," new service, temporary service, disconnects/reconnects, street light maintenance, and street light new installation. The surveys will measure:

3. Level of satisfaction with the work performed
4. Level of satisfaction with the company

F. Worker safety performance measures:

1. Recordable worker injuries per thousand miles of primary distribution line ("Recordable Injuries"): This standard is defined as the number of OSHA recordable injuries experienced by the company in a calendar year divided by the number of miles of primary distribution line owned by the company measured in the thousands of miles.

Recordable Injuries = Number of OSHA Recordable Injuries in a Calendar Year

Thousands of Miles of Primary Distribution Line

An OSHA recordable injury is an injury sustained by a company employee, in the course of performing work for the company, that requires medical treatment. Medical treatment is defined as treatment administered by a physician or by registered professional personnel under the standing orders of a physician. Medical treatment does not include first aid treatment even though provided by a physician or registered professional personnel. OSHA recordable injuries are recorded in the company’s VOSHA Accident Log that is maintained by the company’s Human Resources Department.

The number of primary distribution line miles includes the total of both overhead and underground primary distribution lines, at year’s end, as recorded in the company’s EOIS database.

The baseline measure for Recordable Injuries for the years 2001 and 2002 shall be 7.4. The standard is met as long as Recordable Injuries do not exceed 7.4 in these years.

2. Employee lost days per thousand miles of distribution line ("Lost Time Injuries"): This standard is defined as the number of employee lost days experienced by the company in a calendar year divided by the number of miles of primary distribution line owned by the company measured in the thousands of miles.

Thousands of Miles of Primary Distribution Line

7. Reliability performance measures:

1. System average interruption frequency ("SAIFI"): This standard is defined in Public Service Board Rule 4.901 and is established system-wide and for each of GMP’s Western, Central, and Southern divisions.

2. Customer average interruption duration ("CAIDI"): This standard is defined in Public Service Board Rule 4.901 and is established system-wide and for each of GMP’s Western, Central, and Southern divisions.

3. Worst-Performing Areas: Notwithstanding actual system-wide or division performance, GMP shall identify all areas on its system in which SAIFI or CAIDI exceed 250% of the respective system-wide standard. For each such area identified, GMP shall determine if a cost-effective solution exists to improve the area’s reliability. For 2002, GMP and the Department shall work together to re-establish worst-performing area targets in an attempt to capture no less than 5% of GMP’s customers.
4. Major Storms: Calculation of all SAIFI and CAIDI indices shall be net of outages caused by major storms. A major storm is defined as a severe weather event that satisfies all three of the following criteria:

1. Extensive mechanical damage to the utility infrastructure has occurred;
2. More than 10% of the customers in a service territory are out of service due to the storm or the storm’s effects; and
3. At least 1% of the customers in the service territory are out of service for at least 24 hours.

Total number of GMP customers

1. GMP shall offer the following service guarantees subject to Board approval of necessary tariff amendments:

1. New service installation: In the case of overhead and underground new service requiring only installation of a service cable or a service connection, GMP shall provide a credit of $10 to any customer whose installation is not completed within ten business days of the date the customer has met his or her requirements and is ready for service.
2. Temporary service installation: In the case of overhead temporary service requiring only the installation of a service cable or service connection, GMP shall provide a credit of $10 to any customer whose temporary installation is not completed within ten business days of the date the customer has met his or her requirements and is ready for service.
3. Disconnects and reconnects: GMP shall provide a credit of $10 to any customer whose disconnect/reconnect is not completed within four business days of notification to GMP of the customer’s need.
4. Move Ins-Move Outs: GMP shall provide a credit of $18.75 to any customer whose Move In or Move Out order is not completed within three business days of the date promised to the customer on the Service Order.
5. Streetlight and outdoor light repairs: GMP will repair within seven business days of outage notification by the customer. Measurement shall being when the Scheduling function is first notified of the problem.
6. Streetlight installation: GMP will complete new installation of of less than three streetlights within ten business days of order or on the date promised, whichever is later. This guarantee shall apply to orders of less than three street lights and where the existing poles and electric service for the light fixtures already exist. Measurement begins when the scheduling function is first notified of the problem.

2. All credits owing to customers are a result of failure to meet the time lines described in section A above will be provided automatically without need for the customer to request credit. In the event a person due a credit no longer has an account with GMP at the time the company determines a credit is due, the company shall mail a check for the credit amount to the customer’s last known address.
3. All monies credited to customers as a result service quality guarantees shall be carried by GMP below the line in account 417.1 and shall not be included in the calculation of the company’s cost of service.
4. Weather-related delays will extend the completion dates for the Service Guarantees Work. Weather-related delays are defined in Section 3 of this plan.

This is a quarterly study of contacts (not customers) with GMP during the 4 weeks prior to the study. GMP will work with a contractor to select a random sample from its database of residential customer contacts. The study will achieve a minimum of 400 completed interviews. 75 of these will be sampled from the frame of all contacts in which there is any Anon-payment@ code. The remaining 325 will be sampled from the contacts in which there is no Anon-payment@ code.

[GMP and the DPS will agree on what codes belong to the Anon-payment@ category.]

For both the main sample and the non payment sample, the samples will be examined for duplicate names associated with the contacts within that sample. If a contact is selected for which there is one or more additional contacts with the same name, the contact will be assigned a weight equal to the number of contacts associated with this person in the sample. Only one call will be made to this person as a result of multiple entries in a sample.

For each respondent in the sample, GMP will provide to the contractor the name of the person who contacted the company, the phone number, and the contact reason codes. The contractor will attach the reason codes to the electronic records supplied to the company.

All attempted respondents will be pursued using the dialing protocol even if that means going over the quota. In attempting to reach a respondent on the phone, if the contractor gets a message that the number has been changed, the contractor will dial the new number.

The contractor will do at least 7 call backs in an attempt to reach the desired respondent, and make at least one attempt to convert soft refusals. Refusal conversion attempts must be made by interviewers who are experienced in dealing with difficult respondents and are equipped with effective responses to concerns expressed by these respondents. The contractor will achieve an upper bound response rate (completes/completes+refusals+mid interview terminations) of at least 70% and an efficiency (% of all numbers called resulting in completes) of at least 35%.

GMP will use the screener and initial questions supplied by the Department. It may add other questions following the initial ones.

GMP will allow the Department to review the technical survey procedure specifications in their RFP.

GMP or the contractor will provide to the Department a table of call dispositions for all attempts and a tabulation of the satisfaction questions submitted by the Department. The Department anticipates wanting to see tabulations of the satisfaction questions by some grouping of reason for calling code.