Standard 13.

Call Center Benchmark For A Measured Event

The Commission shall perform a review of utility performance following every Major Outage.  This standard sets a benchmark for the Commission to use in reviewing utility call center performance only during Measured Events.

A.

Benchmark

A utility’s call center performance during a Measured Event shall be presumed reasonable if the percent busies calculation is lower than Level-1, and presumed unreasonable if the percent busies calculation is greater than Level-2.  These presumptions are rebuttable.  Performance equal to or between Level-1 and Level-2 is subject to no presumption.

Level-1 is defined as 30% busies over the day of the outage (12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.).

Level-2 is defined as 50% busies over the day of the outage (12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.) plus at least 50% busies in each of six one-hour increments (these increments need not be consecutive).

B.

Percent Busies Calculation

Percent busies calculation measures the levels of busy signals encountered by customers at the utility’s switch and that of its contractors.  Mutual aid partners are not considered “contractors” for purposes of this standard, and busies encountered as a result of mutual aid assistance are not included in measurements to which this standard applies.

Percent busies indicator is measured on a 24-hour basis for outage-related calls (on energy outage and general call lines) from the time the Measured Event begins (12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.), and separately for each 24-hour period until the Measured Event ends.

Either of the following methods for calculating percent busies is acceptable:

•   Percent of call attempts reaching the utility which receive a busy signal

•   Percent of time that trunk line capacity is exhausted.

C.

Exemption

Utilities with fewer than 150,000 electric customers are exempted from application of this standard.