At Larry McVoy’s home in the Santa Cruz mountains, his generator has been on. All because his power has been off -- and often so far this year.
McVoy said he’s been without electricity, “just under 20 twenty-four-hour days” since Jan. 1.
You might logically assume that with the power going out so much, McVoy's electric bill would be much lower.
“You would think so, but not so much,” he said, with a laugh. “They charged us the full amount in January when we have 16 days of no power.”
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He's not alone. The NBC Bay Area Responds team is hearing from others with confusing electric bills. Our Telemundo Responde team is logging similar complaints.
So, we asked PG&E: What is going on? A rep declined a request to speak on camera.
By email, they said, “When PG&E is unable to collect an actual read for any reason (Example: Non-communicating meter, power outage), the system will estimate based off of historical usage.”
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PG&E told us when it can’t read a meter at the end of a billing cycle, that’s when people like McVoy might get a monthly bill demanding payment for “historical” electricity they never actually used.
So, what happens to fix that bad estimate? PG&E said two things. First, “once power is restored and a read is obtained, the system then uses the read.”
Second, PG&E said it automatically adjusts your next bill to charge you only for your actual electricity use. McVoy said his recent bill was lower, though he’s unsure of the math.
“I got maybe $150 bucks back,” he said.
PG&E declined to discuss McVoy’s account with us, but recommended he contact them so a billing specialist can take a look. PG&E offered the same advice for anyone else who’s puzzled.
We asked the state’s utility watchdog, The Public Advocate’s Office at The Public Utilities Commission, about people’s billing confusion. “At this point, the Public Advocate’s Office does not yet have any insights on this,” a rep said.
If you want to see how much electric PG&E’s billing you for in real time, log into the PG&E website, pge.com. Once in your account, click the link that reads “Energy Usage Details.”
A daily bar graph should load. Solid blue lines are days where PG&E got a reading; shaded blue lines are those “historical” estimates.
Want to dig deeper? Click a bar. It’ll break down your electricity use -- real or estimated -- hour by hour.
Back in the mountains, McVoy’s generator is finally off. And his power’s back on. He recommends double checking your electricity the old-fashioned way.
“If I could do things over again, what I would do is figure out what their billing cycle is, and at least go out and look at the meter,” he said. Read it yourself. Write down the numbers or snap a picture-- to later compare to your bill.
“Keeping records is a good thing,” McVoy said.
If you want to challenge your bill, PG&E said you can call them. The number is 1-800-743-5000. Press three, then four. When we called around noon one Friday, the wait to speak with someone was nine minutes.
