Written by Haley Parnell, LINK nky reporter
Cold Spring resident Tom Lawry is already dreading his next email statement from Duke Energy.
“January’s bill is coming, and January is going to be atrocious because I get the run rate email and what my expected bill is going to be, and it’s $120 dollars higher than last year,” Lawry said.
Winter increases aren’t uncommon, but some Duke Energy users have said their bills are double or triple what they are used to this year.
Lawry paid $287.90 on his December bill. His January bill? $411.94.
“My wife and I just had new windows put in and I saw a nice decrease in my AC bill which I attributed to the windows,” Lawry said. “You’d think it would be the same for heating.”
Duke Energy spokesperson Sally Thelen said the company knew last fall that the winter would be tough. Energy prices, she said, are no different than meat or gas prices, which have gone up in recent months.
“In October, we put out a news release saying, ‘Bills are going to be up considerably due to the price of natural gas this winter, please, make preparations now,’” Thelen said.
That release came out on Oct. 28. The company said global events were increasing the cost of natural gas and would affect both natural gas and electric customers.
Sure enough, some customers we spoke to said they started seeing big leaps in their bills starting in December.
Abbi Schiller, of Bellevue, said her electric bill for her house increased from $202 this time last year to $346 this month. She noticed the increase in her bill starting in December, when it more than tripled from $89 to $283.
Cold Spring resident Angie Carlisle said her Duke Energy bill increased by $85 in December; however, her family uses a natural gas backup to cut down on energy costs. Though she said for a family of four, that can only do so much.
“Duke Energy sets its fuel adjustment clause (FAC) on a monthly basis to better reflect the current cost of fuel and purchased power,” according to Duke Energy’s website. “The Kentucky Public Service Commission approves the monthly change.”
Karen Wilson, with the Public Service Commission, said jurisdictional utilities are allowed to pass through the costs of purchased power and/or fuel on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
“Expenses incurred in a particular month appear in a subsequent month,” Wilson said. “The FAC changes monthly to reflect fuel costs incurred two months earlier.”
Thelen said Duke did everything it could to communicate the possible rises in rates to customers at the end of last year.
“We sent direct customer emails in November, we tried to do direct to customer notifications as well as the stuff that I was doing in the mainstream media with the news releases,” Thelen said. “We clearly said it could be 30 to 50 percent higher.”
Lawry said he received the warning email from Duke Energy but didn’t think much of it because he had his windows replaced for efficiency.
Carlisle said she and her husband didn’t receive any notice, but they were aware just from hearing people talk about prices going up.
“We didn’t receive any emails,” Schiller said. “We get energy usage updates, our halfway mark update projected that our bill would be around $74 but those are the only emails we have gotten.”
To help keep her bill down, Schiller said she and her husband have added things to their house to block out drafts and they keep their thermostat on 65 degrees.
“Before we got our first high bill our heat had been on 72 and we were leaving the TV on for the dogs, once we got that bill, we didn’t go above 67 and conserved power like crazy,” Schiller said.
The Schillers contacted Duke last week, Schiller said, and they were given several suggestions to lower their bill.
“They said that we needed to replace our new appliances, put a blanket on our hot water heater, and put in new insulation,” Schiller said. “We had all of those problems back in November and our bill still wasn’t nearly as high.”
A Facebook post that a Cincinnati-based Duke Energy user posted has been shared over 6,800 times this past weekend due to a different supplier, DYNEGY, increasing his bill. Over 200 comments from people around Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati areas speculate if DYNEGY is the cause of their bills increasing.
DYNEGY starts with the Gas Customer Choice program offered through Duke Energy for Ohio residents. Their website says the program, “enables customers the opportunity to choose a natural gas supplier, other than Duke Energy Ohio. If you decide to purchase your gas from a different supplier, Duke Energy Ohio will continue to deliver the same reliable gas to your home or business, read your meter, perform routine safety checks and respond to gas leaks or emergencies.”
If you are an Ohio resident, DYNEGY or the Gas Customer Choice program enrolling you in a separate energy supplier could be the cause of your higher bills. The Gas Customer Choice program allows customers to figure out what supplier best works for them, and customers can call to get different rates.
If you are a resident of Kentucky, the Gas Customer Choice program does not affect your bill and therefore DYNEGY cannot be the cause of your rising electricity bill; however, there are other factors that could be contributing like the fuel adjustment clause.
While this program is supposed to allow customers to enroll in what best suits their families, a lot of customers are unaware of it and end up in the program without their knowledge. Different suppliers can have different costs which can lead to increased payments.
“I want to be clear; we don’t say it’s a good thing or a bad thing for customer choice,” Thelen said.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy
