U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: Oregon CUB Discovers Utility Billing Scam

Send me info when your credit card company, cell phone company or utility (or whatever) scams you with a billing ripoff. According to an alert from the Oregon Citizens Utility Board, a highly effective consumer group, the local utility stretched out its winter billing cycles a few days (36-plus day "months") so more consumers would go over their low-cost tier (first five hundred kilowatt hours) and get hammered at higher peak load heating rates.

CUB "did extensive analysis of PacifiCorp (Pacific Power's parent company) billing cycles and came up with some surprising numbers. In 2004, more than 60,000 Pacific Power customers had January bills that were 36 days or longer. This is a problem for a couple of reasons: 1) December and January is the peak load for most of Oregon, when cold weather causes those with electric heat to see their highest electric bills of the year; and 2) the Pacific Power rate structure charges customers one price for the first 500 kilowatt hours used, a higher price for the next 500 kwh, and still a higher price for any usage over 1000 kwh. So a 37-day billing cycle during peak usage months could bump a customer into the highest price for their power, and really increase their bill."