The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has suspended the temporary-rate tariff pages that Liberty filed for its EnergyNorth natural gas business and reopened the record after a state-ordered audit of the company's SAP software system. The Commission set a hearing for Nov. 19 and ordered the three parties to the temporary-rate settlement to file legal briefs by Nov. 13.
The Oct. 30 procedural order concerns a settlement filed Oct. 1 by Liberty, the Department of Energy and the Office of the Consumer Advocate. It would let Liberty collect $113,454,268 a year in distribution revenue from Nov. 1 if approved, a $7,274,805 increase over what the settlement calls Liberty's per books distribution revenue. Liberty had asked for a temporary increase of $10,929,559. Customer charges would stay unchanged, and for temporary rates half of Liberty's investment in its Customer First/SAP system as of Dec. 31, 2025, would be excluded. The settlement says temporary rates would be reconciled once permanent rates are decided.
The settlement describes the increase as 6.56 percent above current distribution revenue and 3.69 percent above total company revenue. Those percentages do not match the settlement's own dollar figures by our arithmetic: Liberty's updated bill impact statement lists $106,179,463 as current revenue in its revenue requirement model, and $7,274,805 is 6.85 percent of that. The same exhibit shows an $8,100,599 increase, or 7.69 percent, on a weather-normalized base of $105,353,669.
The Commission heard testimony on the settlement Oct. 6. On Oct. 28, the Department of Energy filed an audit report by Schneider Downs, dated Oct. 27, covering January 2022 through May 2026. The order says the report identified 20 findings of "current risk" conditions: 11 high risk, eight moderate risk and one low risk. The report concludes that the deficiencies increase the risk of unauthorized system access and activity, segregation of duties conflicts, inaccurate or insufficiently supported financial and regulatory reporting, and adverse customer service outcomes, among other risks, according to the order's quotation of it.
The order says the Commission had received no other information or analysis about Liberty's SAP system and no notice of whether the audit changed any settling party's position. It asked the settling parties to answer three questions in briefs by Nov. 13: whether the settlement remains in full force and they still want it approved; how the audit's findings would contradict or be inconsistent with the settlement if admitted into evidence; and whether the findings limit or preclude the Commission from making its own findings under state law to fix temporary rates. Admitted intervenors may also file briefs. The Nov. 19 hearing runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The docket entries through Nov. 11 show no Liberty filing responding to the audit findings other than a confidentiality motion.
That Nov. 9 motion asks the Commission to treat marked sections of the audit as confidential, saying they describe Liberty's information technology and cybersecurity systems and fall under a state exemption for records that would aid a security breach. On Nov. 10, the consumer advocate objected, saying the Department of Energy had filed the report twice, the second time with a cover letter disclaiming any claim to confidentiality, and that 16 of its 44 pages contain no or essentially no public text as Liberty redacted it. The consumer advocate asked the Commission to reject the motion. The docket shows no Liberty reply and no ruling on the motion through Nov. 11.
