“It does ultimately reflect the electric they used in that time frame; it’s an accurate bill,” he said.
Ohio Edison billed the Morgans more than $1,000 to cover the energy usage that was wrongly estimated on the Morgans bills in November and December, Durbin explained. The company estimated the couple’s cost during those months after meter readers could not collect numbers because of inclement weather, he said.
“We try as much as we can to get out to every home, but safety of our readers is one of our top priorities,” Durbin said.
This practice is legal, because consumers must pay for what they use, said Matt Schilling with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.
PUCO is a state-run commission that ensures residential and business consumers have access to adequate, safe and reliable utility services at fair prices. This includes products like electric, natural gas, telephone and transportation services.
Ohio Edison can send customers a large bill in one month to cover the costs of estimates they miscalculated in past months, Schilling said, but the company must give customers a fair time to pay back the difference.
“It would be unreasonable if you had an estimated bill for six months to suddenly it be due in one month. That just wouldn’t fly, so to speak,” he said.
A disabled veteran on a fixed income, Morgan said he cannot afford to pay back the bill on the schedule Ohio Edison demanded he keep. Ohio Edison offers a payment plan for customers to pay back the lumped bill over a period of time, Durbin said.
But the company said Morgan must pay $85 each month on top of his monthly service bill, Morgan said.
Morgan and his wife made calls to Ohio Edison to ask why the bill was so large, but did not understand how a mistake the company made in estimates could lead to such a high bill in one month, Morgan said.
“If you’re going to estimate it, don’t pile it all up on to the end of the year and say that this is going to be your bill,” Morgan said. “They just want you to pay it without explaining what happened.”
PUCO can help energy customers negotiate a fair rate to pay the bill back, Schilling added.
Customers should take into consideration what they can update in their homes to lower their electric bills each month, such as replacing windows or baseboard electric heating.
“Anything you can do to make your house as energy efficient as possible will help with your bill,” Durbin said.
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