investigativevoice.com

By Stephen Janis

When Johns Hopkins grad student Blake Aftab opened up his BGE bill for January, he – along with many other customers throughout Maryland – was shocked.

“I live in a 600-square-foot apartment, so I was pretty surprised when my bill for January was $251 – triple my normal bill.”

But the sticker shock turned into a mystery that Aftab, who is working on his Ph.D in oncology, had to unravel.

“I looked at my past bills and it just didn’t add up. I had never used close to that amount of electricity,” he said.

A series of phone calls to BGE seeking a reason for his unusually high bill yielded little more than frustration.

“It was always the same explanation: It was cold, I used more electricity, and the billing period was longer,” he lamented.

But then, during Aftab's roughly fifth call to the utility company, a BGE supervisor let a key piece of information slip.

“They told me part of my usage for the month was estimated, which wasn’t what my bill said. I knew right then something was wrong.”

At Aftab's request, the supervisor sent him the two meter readings taken during January, along with the estimate for the remaining six days. That’s when Aftab discovered what he thinks may be behind some of the unusually high bills that prompted the recent calls for re-regulation of BGE.

“My average use for the month was 36 kilowatt hours per day, but for the six days they estimated at the beginning of the billing period I was supposedly using 106 kilowatts hours per day.” In other words, Aftab said, BGE estimated he used more electricity in the first six days of the 34-day billing period than he used for the remaining three weeks, even though the average temperature for the days BGE estimated his use was actually 15 degrees higher than in the ensuing weeks.

“So I used three times more energy when the temperature was on average 15 degrees higher. That doesn’t make any sense,” said Aftab, who noted the errant estimate could not be corrected by a future meter reading. “They back-ended it; basically it was a retro-estimate.”

But even though Aftab was armed with proof that he had been overcharged, BGE was stubborn.

“They sent me this form letter. It basically gives the same reason they’ve been saying publicly: that my bill was because of cold weather and a longer billing period.”

But Aftab was undaunted, finally reaching a BGE investigator who didn’t put up much of a fight when confronted with the evidence.

“I explained to her how out of whack the estimate was, and she immediately took 40 percent off the bill,” he said. “She didn’t admit they did anything wrong, but I think there are some serious problems with estimated billings.”

BGE representatives said they could not respond to questions about specific cases, citing customer confidentially. But they did defend estimated readings as accurate.

“When meters are not read…a bill is generated based on an estimated reading. Usually estimated readings are conducted due to operating conditions or safety concerns (storms, icy roads, etc.) Estimated readings are based on previous usage at that location and the weather,” BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy wrote in an e-mail Tuesday to Investigative Voice.

But officials of the Public Service Commission, the regulatory body that approves BGE rate hikes, said they are investigating multiple consumer complaints about inaccurate estimated readings.

“Our Office of External Relations received 23 calls, in which the main point for calling was BGE bill estimates in January and February,” PSC spokeswoman Karen Gatzke wrote in an e-mail.. However, Gatzke said she did not immediately know how the number of complaints compared with last year.

EMT dispatcher Christina Kane, 39, said she was distraught when her January electricity bill for January mushroomed to $1,000 a month for her three-bedroom Cecil County home, and thinks an inaccurate estimate may be the cause.

“I just read it and cried,” said mother of three daughters and wife of an EMT. “Our house is heated by oil, so our average electricity bill has been $300- $500 per month. But according to the bill, we doubled the amount of electricity we used in the month, which doesn’t make sense," Kane said January snowstorms may have prevented meter readers from visiting her home. But instead, of fighting escalating utility bills, she has taken a second job at a private ambulance company.

“I start work today, " she said. "What else can I do? We’re honest hard-working people, but now we're working just to pay our BGE bill.”

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