Got a call from a restaurant owner in Portland who just received a PGE bill for $14,700 — about 5 times their normal monthly bill. Turns out the meter is behind a locked gate in an alley and PGE had been estimating the reads for 14 months. When they finally got access and read the actual meter, the cumulative underestimate caught up all at once. The owner is furious and wants to know if they actually owe this. Unfortunately, yes they do — PGE delivered the electricity and the meter recorded it. But I got PGE to agree to a 12-month payment plan with no interest. The real lesson here is the owner should have been checking their bills for the E code that indicates an estimated read. Has anyone had success getting utilities to write off catch-up bills?
14 consecutive estimated reads — then a catch-up bill from hell
I had a similar situation with Idaho Power — 8 months of estimates on a small warehouse. The catch-up bill was $6,200 on an account that normally runs $800. Idaho Power would not budge on the total owed but they did agree to amortize it over 6 months. The key is that estimated bills are exactly that — estimates. The utility is still entitled to collect for actual usage once they get a real read. I have never seen a utility write off the difference.
Randy that is great advice. I did not know about the PUC rule. Going to look into that for my client. If the rule limits catch-up to 3 billing cycles, that could cut the bill by more than half.
In Connecticut, Eversource has to provide notice after 2 consecutive estimated reads and offer to schedule an actual read. If they fail to provide that notice, you can argue the catch-up bill should be limited. I used this argument on a commercial account in Hartford and got a $4K bill reduced to $1,800. The regulatory rules around estimated bills are an auditor goldmine if you know where to look.
Quick update — filed the informal complaint with the Oregon PUC. PGE agreed to limit the catch-up to 6 months instead of 14 and waived late fees. Client ended up owing about $6,300 instead of $14,700. Not a complete win but much better. PGE also committed to installing a remote-read transmitter on the meter so this does not happen again.