Big jump in power bills may be explained when N.B. Power boss appears before MLAs

N.B. Power customers who saw large increases on their last bills may find out why when the head of the Crown corporation appears before MLAs later this month.

The legislature's public accounts committee has posted notice of a meeting Feb. 27 to review an assessment of residential operations, as well as its latest annual report and part of a December report by the auditor general. 

N.B. Power president and CEO Lori Clark is scheduled to appear.

The provincial government, the only shareholder in the utility, asked N.B. Power on Jan. 21 to conduct an independent audit after widespread complaints from customers about increases in their power consumption and bills that seemed inexplicably high.

Amanda Nelson is one of the customers convinced something went wrong.

According to N.B. Power, her 1,500-square-foot, split-level home used more than 6,055 kWh of electricity over a 38-day billing period ending Jan. 30. 

The house has two heat pumps and three electric heaters, she said, but is primarily heated by two wood stoves.

"I work from home, so I can keep the fire going all day."

Looking back two years, Nelson said, her next highest usage was 3,754 kWh over 33 days ending March 27, 2022.

"We have done nothing to warrant a spike like this," she said.

Nelson said that after a long conversation with an N.B. Power customer service agent she was told her old power meter, which was swapped out in December, had a serial number similar to others that were being investigated. 

"Whatever the issue it needs to be resolved, and then they have to credit anybody that they've already billed," she said.

There was evidence at a previous Energy and Utilities Board hearing that some old meters could be underreporting consumption by up to 20 per cent as they aged. 

If that's part of the issue, Nelson said, more should have been done to brace customers for the impact.

Denis Nowlan of Dieppe said he also had an aberration in his power bill after a smart meter was installed at his home in November. 

Nowlan said the bill he received that month showed a huge spike in daily consumption for the first 12 days of the billing period, when he was still on the old meter. 

Average use was 148 kWh per day, three to four times higher than any other period in November during the previous three years, he said. His highest consuming month in the previous three years was March 2022 at 96 kWh a day.

"This cannot be explained by 'consumption changes,'" Nowlan said. "There is no logical explanation for this."

Nowlan is an electrical engineer with about 18 years of experience designing electrical systems for buildings. He works for the federal government looking after buildings for public works.

He thinks "somebody probably messed up."

He wonders if the technician who replaced the meter forgot to take a reading before removing it or wrote down an incorrect value. Or maybe the first 12 days of the billing period reflect a correction after a number of previous bills based on estimated consumption, he said. 

If the latter is the case, he wonders if he was billed in November for electricity he used much earlier — when the rate was lower.

Nowlan said after he contacted N.B. Power, the utility acknowledged something went wrong with his billing and "froze" his account until it could be further investigated.

U.S.-based energy consultant Doug Bowman defended smart meters and said they don't typically lead to higher bills.

They read power consumption, just like the old ones, he said, but allow easier collection of that data.

Smart meters are becoming the new industry standard, said Bowman, projected to be installed in 93 per cent of households in Canada and the United States within the next two years.

He considers them better than the old meters in many ways.

For example, the utility is notified immediately when there's an outage and can respond sooner, he said. 

Bowman also considers it an advantage that smart meters allow for billing at different rates during periods of high and low demand, which is more in line with the costs of generating that electricity. 

"That enables the customer to get a measure of control over their bills," he said. "They can respond to those rates using more of their consumption in the off-peak — when prices are lower."

In an emailed reply to CBC News on Friday, N.B. Power said its board of directors had asked the accounting firm KPMG to conduct the audit requested by the government, "with a view to identifying the root cause(s) of the increases."

KPMG will observe testing of some old-style power meters as well as some smart meters and will review "a sampling" of high bill complaints received by N.B. Power customer service agents, said utility spokesperson Dominique Couture.

It wouldn't be possible to review all of the complaints within the allotted timeframe, she said.

Online, N.B. Power has posted an appliance energy calculator, a list of factors that could increase energy use and some "high bill mysteries" that were solved:

• Mini-split heat pumps that were set on "auto" switching back and forth between heat and air conditioning.

• Mismanagement of in-floor heating.

• A well pump stuck "on."

• Frequent adjusting of thermostats.

Some customers should probably expect to find out that their "giant" bills are totally accurate, said Rob Hoadley, a Fredericton-based mechanical engineer who designs plumbing, HVAC and mechanical systems for commercial and health-care buildings.

Even if a homeowner didn't change behaviour, it took 17 to 20 per cent more electricity to keep a house warm in December 2024 than it did in December 2023, he said.

"It just got cold. And that meant that you consumed a lot of electricity."

When it drops from zero to minus 20 outside, you need twice as much energy to keep the inside of your house a comfortable temperature, Hoadley said.

Combined with increased rates and a higher number of billing days, the math works out, he said.

"All of that adds up to a big shock when you open up your bill."