"Home Guy" wrote in message ...
Robert Green wrote:

His bill probably holds the sad tale of a one time excursion
into a higher rate zone that's cost him big time. I'll bet he
now becomes very aggressive managing his peak load.

I've located some PDF documents that my local utility has on-line.

I have to have a "12-month average demand" equal to or more than 50 kW,
or have a 12-month rolling kwh consumption greater than 150,000 KWhrs in
order to have a demand meter. 150,000 kwhrs divided by 12 is 12,500 kwh
per month, which is about 4 times my average monthly consumption.

So no, I don't think I've experienced any one-time excursion into a
higher rate zone, at least not in terms of being demand-metered (if
indeed there are any other ways of entering a higher rate zone).

I'd agree that according to the documents it's unlikely you have a demand
meter BUT mistakes happen and they may be basing YOUR billing on some
previous occupant of the premises who may have indeed been operating a
business that used far more electricity that you currently use.

I do stand my by statement that if and when you contact them, you'll be in a
much better position, knowledge-wise, to determine whether what they are
saying is truthful. I once had to take the gas company to the public
service commission because they simply decided I must be cheating because my
gas usage had dropped so much in one year (I switched to a few space heaters
since I was living in primarily one room, recovery from surgery). Why pay
to heat the rest of the house when I was only using one room?

They were such assholes about it that I now wouldn't trust them or the
electric company with a burned out match. The PSC reversed their decision
to bill be for gas I "should have used" because if the meter had failed, it
was the company's fault, not mine. It was a unpleasant experience that
taught me that those who say "the power company" rarely makes mistakes just
haven't had any problems with their utilities - yet.

So good luck to you Home Guy. I believe it's never wrong to question
something you think is way out of line and to learn all you can about the
issue before contacting those in authority. Obviously loads of other people
here believe differently, but they are informed by different experiences.
My experience is that utilities CAN and DO make serious mistakes, and when
they do, they often try to cover up their incompetence or worse, even if it
costs some poor guy like you or me $100's or $1,000's.

It's too bad much of this thread devolved into a typical Usenet ****ing
match, but remember, there's never a shortage of Usenet posters who live
just to get people's goats by posting that "everything you do is wrong and
you're an idiot." Except they usually spell it "your an idiot." Learning
not to respond to "goat getters" is one of the many tests of manhood that
Usenet offers. (-:

Good luck. I hope you sort this out. Something looks fishy.

--
Bobby G.