Spike in monthly N.B. Power bills shocks customers
Utility says weather and other drivers of consumption explain 'most' issues
Some New Brunswickers are convinced something is wonky with their latest bills from N.B. Power.
MLA Margaret Johnson told CBC News she received dozens of complaints in the past week from constituents upset that their power bills had doubled.
"I had 65 [complaints] at bedtime last night, and then there were at least 15 more this morning when I woke up," the Progressive Conservative told Information Morning Fredericton on Monday.
"What the heck is going on when you've got people talking about the fact that they've actually been away from home? I've got a a real estate agent who has an empty house that had a 1,000 kWh spike. How does that happen?"
Johnson said she checked with some of her legislature colleagues, and it seems that hundreds of people have been affected, most in the Upper St. John River Valley.
Bill Hogan, the MLA for Woodstock-Hartland, "told me of a lady who had called him who was beside herself because her increase was as much as her pension check," Johnson said.
"And how on earth was she ever going to be able to afford to, you know, pay her other bills when the power bill is going to take up everything?
"We're talking with people who are having increases between $200 and $500 in their bill," said Johnson, and kWh increases of up to 1,500.
It's an unwelcome surprise after the election promise of a 10 per cent rebate on power bills, said Johnson.
"They're just totally shell-shocked."
N.B. Power has also received many complaints about the jumps in power bills and has brought in extra resources to deal with the situation, as it does for big storms, said president and CEO Lori Clark.
"We take every customer complaint seriously and investigate with the customer one-on-one," Clark said. "For the most part we have not found anything out of the ordinary."
"The audits that we have done on our system would indicate that this is a consumption change in our customers."
A number of known factors have caused power bills to increase:
Cold weather hit for the first time since rates increased by 9.8 per cent last spring, December was three per cent colder year over year, and the billing period for some customers was as long as 33 days.
"Sometimes it's hard for customers to understand … when temperatures drop by one degree, energy consumption can increase as much as four per cent," said Clark.
There was also a one-time debit of $11 for some customers, to comply with the Energy and Utilities Board's order to keep distinct service charges for rural and urban customers.
Johnson was skeptical those factors could account for the differences customers are seeing.
"It doesn't make sense … because we've got people who run their homes with alternatives to electric energy … people who are running on wood heat … and people were running on oil still are getting these huge increases," Johnson said.
Even people on equalized billing plans are seeing increases of $100 a month, she said.
Tracy Wright of Blissfield said the energy consumption for her small house was up from 1,700 kWh to 2,300, and that was with fewer Christmas lights than last year and no additional appliances.
Wright said she compared average monthly temperatures and found it was indeed colder It was -4 on average as opposed to -1 the previous December.
But even in comparison to February 2024, when the average temperature was also -4, her household energy consumption last month was 500 kWh higher, she said.
Barb MacKinnon of Nasonworth, near Fredericton, said her December bill was "far too high to be accurate."
"The power usage at my house has been consistent over many years and nothing changed here in those months," said MacKinnon.
What these customers seem to have in common, according to Johnson, is the recent installation of smart meters.
"I just wonder if there's a glitch in the system," she said.
Clark is confident smart meters are not to blame.
"These are all federally regulated. They have to be reviewed by Measurement Canada before they're installed. … We actually audit and review them when we install them, and every six years they have to be audited again."
However, in some cases, initial investigations have not been able to explain customer complaints, she acknowledged.
"If it is something that we also think is very strange and not in the norm of what we're seeing with our other customers, we will dispatch resources to check the meter and we've done that on on a number of occasions," Clark said.
CBC has requested further information about the number of cases in question and what if any problems have been discovered.
If a customer wants a meter inspection that N.B. Power doesn't deem necessary, the fee is $65.
The opposition Progressive Conservatives are calling for an independent audit of smart meters and the data they collect.
"There needs to be a thorough examination of what's going on," Johnson said. "We need to do a really good deep dive into what is causing these spikes."
- Don't keep the change: N.B. Power preparing to refund all customers, including some owed pennies
- N.B. Power wins long fight to raise rates 19 per cent over 2 years
She would like the legislature's public accounts committee to look into the issue.
That would be up to the provincial government, Clark said, while noting the Crown corporation does its own audits on a regular basis.
About half of all N.B. Power customers now have smart meters. They can view their consumption on the utility's website and get customer support to understand what may be going on, she said.
They can also get notifications when consumption starts to increase, which might allow them to make adjustments to avoid a higher bill, she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Information Morning Fredericton