A new state agency that investigates utility issues is winning praise from consumers and lawmakers.

The Office of Regulatory Staff spun off from the utility-regulating S.C. Public Service Commission in January as part of a legislative effort to prevent pro-utility bias at the commission.

During its first four months, the office has:

• Handled nearly 3,200 consumer complaints and inquiries

• Mediated a temporary agreement with utilities in February not to turn off customers’ power on days when freezing temperatures are forecast within 24 hours. An 89-year-old Greenville woman died Dec. 11 from hypothermia after her power was cut off.

• Worked to develop a list of elderly and disabled people who need attention prior to power cutoffs

• Helped convince the PSC to hold some hearings on proposed rate increases by Carolina Water Service after business hours so more consumers could attend.

On Friday, the agency became part of the state’s efforts to halt the flow of bacteria-ridden wastewater in a tributary of the Congaree River. The Office of Regulatory Staff is seeking permission to have a larger sewer system take over the small treatment plant between Cayce and Gaston owned by Piney Grove Utilities. The agency wants the PSC to revoke the utility’s $125,000 bond.

West Columbia business owner Monica Powell praised the new investigating office after it helped her escape an unfavorable telephone contract. “I was very grateful,” Powell said.

“My perception is that (the new agency) is working well,” added S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, a proponent of the PSC reforms.

Prior to the changes, judges reversed some PSC decisions for not being based on facts. Also, the Legislative Audit Council suggested some PSC members lacked competence and impartiality.

To promote objectivity, the General Assembly voted in February 2004 to raise the qualifications for PSC members and to split the PSC in two. The split gives each resulting agency different priorities.

The PSC maintains the judicial role of settling disputes over utility rates and making other decisions about utility regulation.

The Office of Regulatory Staff inspects utilities, investigates complaints about them and enforces PSC decisions.

The investigative agency also recommends utility policies to the PSC, after balancing consumer needs, a utility’s financial stability and the state’s economic-development needs.

The PSC makes its own decision whether to follow investigators’ recommendations.

“The Office of Regulatory Staff is doing a really excellent job of representing the three different areas,” said Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Oconee.

Sandifer gives credit for the agency’s success to its executive director, former S.C. administrative law judge C. Dukes Scott.

Scott, a 1974 graduate of the USC School of Law, is a former PSC commissioner and former deputy executive director of the PSC.

Scott also briefly worked in the mid-1980s as a private attorney for some utility companies. There’s no conflict, however, because the companies went out of business.

Scott, who earns $130,000 a year, started work in July with virtually no staff, an uncertain budget, some office space borrowed from another agency and a six-month deadline to be ready to address a complex variety of utility issues.

He called the experience “wonderful” because few people get to create a new state agency.

The PSC, which has mostly new members since the reforms were enacted, praises its new sibling.

The Office of Regulatory Staff has freed the commission to concentrate on deciding utility rates and policies, said PSC chairman Randy Mitchell.

The Office of Regulatory Staff helps ensure decisions are based on correct data, Mitchell said.

Said Scott, “At the end of the day, if we can say that everything we accomplished benefited the public interest and was done with integrity, then we have kept the trust placed in us by the citizens.”

Reach McWilliams at (803) 771-8308 or jmcwilliams@thestate.com.