Green Mountain Power in Vermont has completely botched estimated billing for my manufacturing client. They estimated March usage at 180% of actual, then when they got the real reading, they issued a "correction" bill that spans 47 days and includes negative adjustments, positive adjustments, and proration errors. The bill is literally unreadable. Anyone dealt with GMP estimate corrections?
Green Mountain Power estimated bill disaster
Chester, that sounds like a mess. When utilities issue correction bills spanning multiple periods, they often apply the wrong rate schedules to different portions. Make sure they're using the rates that were effective during each actual usage period, not current rates.
GMP has had billing system issues for years. The key with their correction bills is to break down each line item by the original billing period it covers. I usually create a spreadsheet to reverse-engineer what they're trying to do.
Randy and Tina - thanks for the tips. I'm trying to reconstruct the math but GMP applied different demand charges to the same time period depending on which "correction" they're making. The March estimated demand was $12.50/kW, the correction shows $14.20/kW for the same days. Makes no sense.
Chester, that demand charge difference suggests they're mixing rate schedules. Did your client change rate classes between the estimate and correction? Or did GMP have a rate change effective during that period?
Steve - no rate change, same tariff schedule the whole time. Called GMP and they admitted their correction billing module has "known issues" with demand charge proration. They're supposedly working on a fix but can't tell me when it'll be ready.
Chester, "known issues" means you're not the only one getting screwed by this. I'd file a complaint with the Vermont PSB and specifically mention that GMP acknowledged systematic billing errors. That usually gets their attention faster than individual customer complaints.
Also ask GMP for a complete billing history reconstruction going back 12 months. If their system has "known issues," there could be other errors you haven't caught yet. Better to find them all at once.
Filed the PSB complaint yesterday. Also requested the 12-month reconstruction like Tina suggested. GMP initially balked but agreed when I mentioned the PSB case number. Turns out there are errors going back 8 months - all related to estimated bill corrections.
Chester, 8 months of errors? That's potentially a big refund. Make sure you're tracking interest charges too - Vermont allows customers to collect interest on utility overbilling at the state's prime rate plus 2%.
Update: GMP agreed to a $12,400 credit to resolve all the estimation and proration errors. They're also implementing new billing system controls to prevent estimated bill corrections from spanning multiple rate periods. PSB complaint was key to getting them to move quickly.
Chester, excellent outcome! $12,400 plus the system fixes means other GMP customers will benefit too. The PSB complaint route really does work when utilities have systematic issues like this.
Great work Chester! That's exactly why we do this job - one complaint can fix problems affecting hundreds of customers. Did GMP mention how many other accounts were affected by the same billing system issue?
Also, would love to see that PSB case number if you're comfortable sharing. Could be useful precedent for other GMP issues.