LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Expensive bills and late fees are costing Kentuckians after this winter’s prolonged deep freeze. A frequent question now is, ‘why is my bill so high?’
“It's these winter months where we see these deep freezes,” said Drew Gardner, a spokesperson for Kentucky Utilities. “That is the most significant difference in your bills.”
Why would a deep freeze have more impact than a hot summer day? Contrary to the belief that it takes more energy to heat things up over cooling a room down, Gardner says the indoor-outdoor temperature difference is the primary factor.
“If you're keeping your home at 68 degrees, that's a more than 50 degree difference in the outdoor temperature and indoor temperature that your HVAC systems are having to make up the difference,” Gardner explained. “In the summer even, you're not making up as large of a difference. If you think it's 100 degrees, you keep your house at 70, that's only a 30-degree difference.”
Looking at one example, the bill from this past February used nearly twice as much energy, 1,126 kWh, versus measurements less than 600 kWh from last summer and fall.
Along with causing higher costs, the cold contributed to late fees, according to Philipp Rosemann, who lives in Winchester.
“I received an unwelcome letter from Winchester Municipal Utilities telling me that I was late on my utilities bill,” he shared.
The problem is that Rosemann said he never received the initial bill in the first place. Rosemann got an answer when he visited the WMU office.
“I spoke with a gentleman there who told me that a lot of customers didn't receive their bills because the post office during the bad weather and during the snow and ice returned many of these invoices to WMU without delivering them,” Rosemann explained.
Winchester Municipal Utilities has responded to this, with general manager Kyle Raney issuing this statement today.
“It has come to our attention that, as a result of the recent winter weather event, some WMU customers did not receive their utility bills prior to the due date — and in certain cases, did not receive them at all. While WMU processed all bills and submitted them for mailing on schedule, disruptions in mail delivery appear to have impacted timely receipt. Late penalties were automatically applied in accordance with our normal billing procedures. However, we understand the circumstances were beyond our customers’ control. Any customer whose bill was mailed during the period affected by the winter weather will not be responsible for late charges. If a late fee has already been assessed, it will be fully credited back to the customer’s account.
We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding and we encourage anyone with questions to contact our office for assistance.”
With temperatures back up and snow mostly gone, Kentuckians should still keep an eye on their utility bills. Rates are set to rise after the Kentucky Public Service Commission approved utility rate increases.
Gardner shared more that Kentucky Utilities customers can take action to get a closer look at daily energy usage, now that they are installing advanced meters in their service area.
“We now have what's called an advanced meter dashboard that all customers can in real time go online and monitor their energy usage throughout the month,” Gardner explained. “There's a whole personalized dashboard that provides a lot of tools to where customers can really track how they're using energy and see in real-time the impacts.”
Additionally, Gardner mentioned an option that would spread things out over a time period.
“Our budget payment plan looks at your last 12 months of energy usage and then puts out an average where you're paying the same amount each month so you know what's going to be coming,” he said.
You can find more energy efficiency tips and other programs here.
