Jacksonville clients are getting hammered by JEA's inconsistent billing periods. Had one customer with a 23-day August bill ($341) followed immediately by a 38-day September bill ($1,847). The customer is furious and honestly, so am I. JEA claims it's due to "route optimization" but this creates massive cash flow issues for businesses. The September bill includes demand charges that seem way off - 47.3 kW when their typical peak is around 35 kW.
JEA proration nightmare - 23-day bill followed by 38-day bill
Rob, that demand spike could be legitimate if it's a 38-day period covering peak summer usage. But the real issue is whether JEA is prorating their customer charges correctly. With a 23-day period, they should only charge about 74% of the monthly customer charge, not the full amount. Same with any monthly minimums or facility charges. Check Schedule B-3 for the exact language on prorations.
This is exactly why I hate municipal utilities sometimes. JEA has way too much flexibility compared to investor-owned utilities. In Tennessee, TVA distributors have to maintain relatively consistent billing periods or face PSC scrutiny. Rob, have you tried contacting JEA's customer advocate office? They're usually more reasonable than the regular customer service folks.
Angela, you're absolutely right about the customer charges! They charged the full $18.50 on the 23-day bill instead of prorating it to $13.69. That's an easy $4.81 recovery right there. Terry, I'll try the customer advocate route. The regular CSR just kept saying "the computer calculates everything automatically" which is obviously not helping.
Rob, document everything and consider filing a formal complaint if they won't cooperate. OG&E tried similar billing period games a few years back and the Oklahoma Commission came down hard on them. Municipal utilities think they're immune but customer advocates and media pressure can be very effective. The 38-day period might be defensible but that 23-day period smells like manipulation to me.
The 47.3 kW demand reading needs scrutiny too. If it occurred during the extended 38-day period, it's possible but suspicious. JEA should be able to provide daily demand data to show exactly when that peak occurred. Sometimes meter malfunctions cause false peaks, especially during meter change-outs or maintenance. Push for the interval data if this is a large commercial account.
Great point Jim. This is a manufacturing client with pretty consistent load patterns, so 47.3 kW is definitely anomalous. I've requested the interval data but JEA is being slow to respond. Ed, you might be right about filing a formal complaint. The customer is ready to escalate this - they're talking about relocating operations outside JEA territory if this continues.
Rob, I'm also in Jacksonville and seeing similar issues with JEA lately. They switched billing software earlier this year and it's causing all sorts of proration problems. I've got three clients with similar billing period irregularities. We should probably coordinate our complaints to show it's a systematic issue, not isolated cases.
Robert, absolutely! Let's connect offline. If multiple clients are affected, that strengthens our case significantly. I've got documentation on four different accounts now with similar proration errors. JEA needs to fix their billing system and make customers whole for these mistakes.
Following this thread with interest. FPL here in Miami has been pretty consistent with billing periods, but I've heard horror stories about municipal utilities and their billing practices. Rob and Robert, definitely coordinate your efforts. Utilities hate dealing with organized advocacy - it gets results much faster than individual complaints.
Update: Rob and Robert's coordinated approach worked. JEA just announced they're reviewing all bills from the past six months with irregular periods and will issue automatic credits for proration errors. Sometimes solidarity really pays off!