Did BGE underestimate your June bill??
A couple people asked me about something weird in their June BGE bill, which reflects May usage. Rather than read the meter, BGE estimated the May kilowatt use for these customers, and in both cases the estimate was very low. For these customers, this had the apparent effect of shifting May kilowatts into the July bill, by which time BGE had read the meter and trued up their account. After June 1, of course, BGE's standard price went up 70 percent. So a kilowatts that should apparently have been billed at the cheaper May rate got billed at the expensive June rate, giving BGE a markup.
If it's an isolated incident, maybe no big deal. But if it's part of a pattern, that's another matter. If BGE estimated your June bill (May electricity use) and it looks too low, pls. email me: jay.hancock@baltsun.com
PS. To see if BGE read your meter or estimated your use, look on the front page of your bill at the top right. There's a grey box with "Next Scheduled Reading" at the top and then "Electric Usage Profile" underneath. Under Electric Usage it shows data from your last two months of use and from the same month in 2006. Next door, under "Type of Reading," it'll say "Actual" or "Estimated." I'm looking for people whose bills were estimated for June or May and seem too low.
Comments
Jay, When I worked for BGE bills were estimated based on prior usage, temperature during the period, and the "premise conditions" as shown on a customer account. Premise conditions include type of heating/cooling equipment, hot water heater, hot tub, pool, freezer, etc. Sometimes estimates were high or low because the premise conditions were incorrect or because the meter reading history was bad. I don't think a program would be written to estimate low so that more units would be billed when higher rates go into effect. BGE employees have nothing to gain by doing that and have everything to lose.
Posted by: Dan Plakatoris | August 10, 2007 8:11 AM