HOUSTON — The recent storms left many people in the Houston area without power, but imagine your electricity bill going up during the week your lights were out. That’s why one homeowner called KHOU 11 News for help.
Tracy and James Oliveraz got what’s called a weekly summary. It says they used 186.4 kwh May 12-18 and then the next week when the power was out, it says they used 208.6 kwh May 19-25. The couple said they called Green Mountain Energy, but they never got a good explanation as to why.
“I told James, wow five days no electricity – our bill should be a little bit lower, but it wasn’t," said Tracy Oliveraz. “We’ve done nothing different, same things turned on – TV, air conditioning, just basic stuff – him and I in the house."
They were without power for five days at their Oak Forest home after the derecho storm on May 16. However, during that time, their electricity usage seemed to go up.
“It doesn’t make sense, you get to the point where you are like, what can we do about a big giant company, so we called you,” said James Oliveraz.
We reached out to Green Mountain Energy and they told us this is not a bill, just a weekly summary. The first two days fell in one week, and the remaining three in the following week. They’re not being charged for those days, but the two days after the power outage usage went up.
In a statement, Green Mountain said:
“Our records show zero usage for this customer from May 17 to May 21. The first two days are reflected in the weekly summary of May 12-18, and the remaining three are reflected in the weekly summary of May 19-25. The meter shows higher usage on the two days following the power outage, which is why overall usage increased that week. For customers who are seeing high electricity usage on their accounts despite having no power, we apologize for any confusion. The usage on their account could be estimated due to the inability to communicate with their smart meter. Once communication with their meter is restored, the utility will work to replace their estimated reads with actual reads. Please rest assured, customers will only be billed for actual usage when their smart meter data becomes available.”
We also reached out to CenterPoint, because all of the usage numbers come from them. They also said things get estimated during storms and it can take several days for the data to catch up online.
"After the two recent storms, CenterPoint Energy was focused on restoring power to impacted customers across its Houston Electric service territory. Billing concerns may arise related to the time customers’ homes were without power. During this time, we may initially estimate usage using historical data if we can’t communicate with meters during outages. Once we have information from the meters, we do update the usage sent to the retail electric providers, who should provide billing adjustments based on actual usage. In addition, we update the information on Smart Meter Texas and on the CenterPoint 'My Account' portal.
"Given this process, usage summaries provided by a customer’s Retail Electric Provider may not reflect the most up to date usage data. We recommend that customers wait several days to start reviewing the interval usage data on Smart Meter Texas and our website, to give the data time to catch up. For this particular customer, the usage reported below is current and correct. We’ve reached out to the customer to discuss their recorded usage. Please rest assured that we will address any issues so that customers only pay for electricity they actually used."
In the meantime, the Oliverazes just want to better understand their electricity usage.
“With everything so expensive right now, I’m just trying to be a savvy consumer, when the bills come in I make sure they are what they are supposed to be," said Tracy Oliveraz.
Since our interview, the Oliverazeses got their actual bill. It was $80 more than last month. They were told by CenterPoint any electricity usage they saved when the power was out, went away when a heat wave caused usage to soar.
The couple also found out they were on a variable rate, which means cheaper payments when demand is low, but when demand is high, the price increases dramatically. Now, the Oliverazes said they've been offered a new fixed-rate plan and are much happier knowing what to expect.
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