I'm reviewing a client's Eversource bills from Hartford and noticed they got charged for a 33-day billing period in March. The previous period was only 28 days. Is this just normal meter reading schedule variation or should I be flagging this? The demand charge seems to be calculated correctly but the energy portion looks high. Client is on Rate G-2 and the bill jumped from $8,400 to $11,200 which seems excessive even accounting for the longer period.
Eversource charged me for 33-day billing period - is this normal?
Vince, that's pretty normal for utilities trying to get back on their regular reading schedule. Cleveland Illuminating does this all the time after holidays or weather delays. The real question is whether they prorated the demand charges correctly. For a 33-day period, your demand charges should be multiplied by 33/30, not just use the straight monthly rate. Did you check that calculation?
Frank's right about the demand proration. CPS Energy here in San Antonio uses the exact same formula. But also check if they applied any seasonal rate changes during that period - March is when a lot of utilities switch from winter to summer rates. That could explain part of the jump beyond just the longer billing period.
I see this constantly with ComEd here in Chicago. They love their irregular billing periods. The key thing to watch for is whether they're using daily proration factors consistently across all charges. Sometimes they'll prorate the energy but forget to adjust the customer charge or apply the wrong factor to demand. Get the tariff and do the math yourself - I've caught probably $50K in overcharges this year on period length errors alone.
Yuri makes a good point about customer charges. PSE&G in Newark does the same thing - they'll prorate everything except forget the customer charge should be 33/30 too. It's usually only a few bucks but it adds up. Also check if there were any meter reading estimates in the previous short period that got trued up in this bill. That could account for the big jump.
Thanks everyone. I ran the calculations and you're right - they prorated the demand correctly but used the old winter rate for the first 18 days and summer rate for the remaining 15 days. The transition happened mid-period. That explains most of the increase. Still going to file for the customer charge error though, Yuri was spot on about that.
Good catch on the seasonal transition. SMUD here in Sacramento loves to do that too. Pro tip - always check if they applied the rate change on the actual effective date or just used it for the whole billing period. I've seen them get lazy and just use one rate for the entire month even when the tariff changed mid-period.
Jennifer brings up a great point. The devil is always in the details with these period overlaps and rate transitions. Document everything and keep pushing - these utilities count on customers not checking the math this closely.