Colorado revised their backbilling statute last year and Xcel Energy is testing the boundaries aggressively. New CRS 40-3-106 allows up to 36 months if utility can prove customer knowledge or negligence. Xcel just hit one of my commercial clients with a $95,000 backbill claiming 30 months of underbilled demand charges. They're saying the customer should have noticed their bills were too low. Anyone else seeing this interpretation from Xcel?
Colorado backbilling statute changes - Xcel pushing limits
Scott, we're seeing similar tactics from Portland General Electric under Oregon's revised rules. The 'customer should have known' argument is weak unless bills were dramatically lower than comparable periods. What was the percentage underbilling and did Xcel provide any comparative analysis to support their knowledge claim?
Different utility but Georgia Power tried this same argument with a client in Augusta. They claimed customer should have noticed 40% lower bills over 18 months. We successfully argued that seasonal variations and energy efficiency improvements made the changes reasonable. Customer had no duty to audit utility billing accuracy.
The underbilling was about 25% on demand charges due to a faulty demand meter. Bills were lower but not dramatically so, especially considering they'd installed LED lighting and new HVAC controls. Xcel is claiming the customer had a duty to question the lower bills. I'm arguing no reasonable customer would suspect meter problems from normal efficiency improvements.
Scott, the Colorado statute requires clear and convincing evidence of customer knowledge, not just speculation they should have known. With energy efficiency improvements providing plausible explanation for lower bills, Xcel will have a hard time meeting that burden. I'd demand they prove the customer actually knew the meter was malfunctioning, not just that bills seemed low. The customer duty argument rarely holds up without specific evidence of awareness.