I've been tracking my billing periods from Oncor here in Dallas and noticed they keep running 32-33 days instead of monthly. Last three bills were Aug 2-Sep 3 (32 days), July 1-Aug 2 (32 days), May 30-July 1 (32 days). Is this standard practice? My commercial account is on GS-1 rate and the extra days are adding up to about $180/month in additional demand charges.
Oncor keeps billing me for 32 day periods - normal?
Marcus - that's pretty typical for most utilities actually. PECO here in Philly does the same thing, they try to read meters on the same day of the week rather than exact monthly intervals. The tariff usually allows for billing periods between 28-35 days. Check your rate schedule, it should specify the allowable range.
Same issue with SMUD here in Sacramento. They run long cycles during summer months when meter reading gets backed up. The key is to check if they're prorating your demand charges correctly. If you're paying full demand on a 32-day period vs 30 days, that's where you can push back.
FirstEnergy does this too in Ohio. What you want to look for is if they're adjusting the kWh tiers proportionally. On a 32-day cycle, your first tier should be higher than the standard monthly amount. Most utilities forget to do this adjustment.
Thanks everyone. I checked my tariff and it does allow 28-35 days. Phil, you're right about the demand proration - they are adjusting it but only by calendar days, not billing days. So 32 days gets prorated as 31/30 instead of 32/30. Filed a complaint this morning.
Marcus, that's a $50/month error right there on a decent sized account. MLGW tried the same thing with one of my clients last year. Took three months to get them to fix their proration calculation but we recovered about $800 in overcharges.
Good catch on the demand proration formula Marcus. That's exactly the kind of detail that slips through. Most utilities have automated systems that use calendar days for everything instead of actual billing period length.
Marcus - any update on your complaint? FirstEnergy finally responded to a similar issue I had and agreed to refund 8 months of incorrect proration. Sometimes it just takes persistence.