Many O.C. residents are asking gas company, why are our January bills so high?
Feb. 4, 2016 Updated Feb. 5, 2016 7:08 a.m.
By SUSAN CHRISTIAN GOULDING and LILY LEUNG / STAFF WRITERS
Tom and Jennie Tighe of Rossmoor are among the irate customers: They saw their gas costs jump from $81 on their December bill to $379 on January?s.
?When I saw the bill, I thought, ?Oh, my God, this is much more than any gas bill I?ve ever received,?? she said. ?Yes, we have a big house. But we keep our thermostat at 68 degrees, and now that it?s just my husband and me, we shut the vents to all the rooms we don?t use.?
Some residents surmise that the soaring tabs were caused by the big ongoing gas leak at Porter Ranch, issues with new ?advanced meters? or inflated estimates on the gas company?s part.
But utility officials say the explanation is simpler than that: a colder-than-normal winter.
?People are in denial about how much they?re using their heaters,? said Anne Silva, a spokeswoman for SoCalGas, which services all of Orange County.
Consumers angry over higher bills also may have failed to calculate a recent rate hike, according to gas company officials.
But many remain skeptical. Those factors, they say, aren?t enough to explain how their most recent statements ? covering the last week of December and most of January ? shot up so high.
Many have taken to social media to compare notes and the consumption of thermal units ? a measurement better known as ?therms.?
One therm is 100 cubic feet of gas consumed.
Helen Deavila, a single mom in Los Alamitos, says she doesn?t run her heat because she?s on a budget. Yet her bill showed she used 195 therms in January, nearly triple the amount from a year ago.
?My January bill skyrocketed to $214 ? for a three-bedroom apartment,? Deavila said.
Deavila recently acquired what the company calls an advanced meter from SoCalGas, which has been installing the digital meters in stages throughout the county. Those meters transmit data directly to the gas company for billing, reducing the need for meter readers.
Other increases were not as dramatic but still were confusing to some. Costa Mesa resident Bryce Myrtle?s bill doubled to $80 from December to January. Seal Beach resident Ernesto Alba?s January bill was $98, a threefold increase.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered the average temperature for January of 2016 in Santa Ana at 58.6, the coldest January since 2013. December came in at 57.5, the coldest since 2012. Both months averaged about 4 degrees colder than their previous years? means.
Something else that kicked in during the last billing cycle: an 8 percent rate increase approved by the CPUC in October to cover the delivery of gas to clients.
In January, that rate hike added only about 3 percent to the per-therm cost on residential bills because of a coinciding decrease in natural gas prices, said Javier Mendoza, a SoCalGas spokesman.
But some residents fault potentially questionable estimates for the higher bills ? adding that SoCalGas reps provided baffling explanations for those estimates.
Stacey Butler of Rossmoor was among them. Her estimated bill for January was $295, a fivefold jump from December.
?That ticked me off,? Butler said. ?My husband said to send them a check for $60 and say we?re ?estimating? our payment.?
Silva, with SoCalGas, said estimates are rare and done only when meter readers don?t have access to the remaining older meters or don?t feel comfortable entering a yard because of dogs.
However, Rossmoor resident Lance Schumacher, who said he was told that inaccessibility to his meter necessitated an estimate, argues that the meter is not behind a gate.
?It?s the same place it?s been for 10 years,? he said.
Customer service representatives told other residents that SoCalGas had experienced a shortage of meter readers in recent months. A dozen Orange County cities are still receiving the new meters.
?They told me they?d estimated my usage because they didn?t have enough meter readers,? said Costa Mesa resident Jessika Fairbarn, whose January bill came in at $135, compared with $18 in December. ?An estimate based on what? That bill was seven times what I?m used to paying.?
Bryce Myrtle of Costa Mesa received similar information that the company ?didn?t have enough meter readers available October, November and December.?
SoCalGas spokesman Mendoza said that if the company experienced a shortage of meter readers, the deficit was not because of job reassignments or layoffs.
?Like any workplace, there are times when employees are not available and when people get sick,? he said.
When estimates are off, the gas company will make adjustments in a future bill, Mendoza said: ?We will print ?estimated bill? on the bill, and we will make any necessary corrections upward or downward when a reading is obtained.?
Customers who suspect their bill is wrong can order a ?high bill? investigation visit.
In the meantime, the company advises customers to turn down their thermostats.
?I?m guilty, too, of cranking up the heat right now,? Silva said. ?We all need to put on our sweaters.?
Contact the writer: sgoulding@ocregister.com and lleung@ocregister.com
Feb. 4, 2016 Updated Feb. 5, 2016 7:08 a.m.
By SUSAN CHRISTIAN GOULDING and LILY LEUNG / STAFF WRITERS
Tom and Jennie Tighe of Rossmoor are among the irate customers: They saw their gas costs jump from $81 on their December bill to $379 on January?s.
?When I saw the bill, I thought, ?Oh, my God, this is much more than any gas bill I?ve ever received,?? she said. ?Yes, we have a big house. But we keep our thermostat at 68 degrees, and now that it?s just my husband and me, we shut the vents to all the rooms we don?t use.?
Some residents surmise that the soaring tabs were caused by the big ongoing gas leak at Porter Ranch, issues with new ?advanced meters? or inflated estimates on the gas company?s part.
But utility officials say the explanation is simpler than that: a colder-than-normal winter.
?People are in denial about how much they?re using their heaters,? said Anne Silva, a spokeswoman for SoCalGas, which services all of Orange County.
Consumers angry over higher bills also may have failed to calculate a recent rate hike, according to gas company officials.
But many remain skeptical. Those factors, they say, aren?t enough to explain how their most recent statements ? covering the last week of December and most of January ? shot up so high.
Many have taken to social media to compare notes and the consumption of thermal units ? a measurement better known as ?therms.?
One therm is 100 cubic feet of gas consumed.
Helen Deavila, a single mom in Los Alamitos, says she doesn?t run her heat because she?s on a budget. Yet her bill showed she used 195 therms in January, nearly triple the amount from a year ago.
?My January bill skyrocketed to $214 ? for a three-bedroom apartment,? Deavila said.
Deavila recently acquired what the company calls an advanced meter from SoCalGas, which has been installing the digital meters in stages throughout the county. Those meters transmit data directly to the gas company for billing, reducing the need for meter readers.
Other increases were not as dramatic but still were confusing to some. Costa Mesa resident Bryce Myrtle?s bill doubled to $80 from December to January. Seal Beach resident Ernesto Alba?s January bill was $98, a threefold increase.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered the average temperature for January of 2016 in Santa Ana at 58.6, the coldest January since 2013. December came in at 57.5, the coldest since 2012. Both months averaged about 4 degrees colder than their previous years? means.
Something else that kicked in during the last billing cycle: an 8 percent rate increase approved by the CPUC in October to cover the delivery of gas to clients.
In January, that rate hike added only about 3 percent to the per-therm cost on residential bills because of a coinciding decrease in natural gas prices, said Javier Mendoza, a SoCalGas spokesman.
But some residents fault potentially questionable estimates for the higher bills ? adding that SoCalGas reps provided baffling explanations for those estimates.
Stacey Butler of Rossmoor was among them. Her estimated bill for January was $295, a fivefold jump from December.
?That ticked me off,? Butler said. ?My husband said to send them a check for $60 and say we?re ?estimating? our payment.?
Silva, with SoCalGas, said estimates are rare and done only when meter readers don?t have access to the remaining older meters or don?t feel comfortable entering a yard because of dogs.
However, Rossmoor resident Lance Schumacher, who said he was told that inaccessibility to his meter necessitated an estimate, argues that the meter is not behind a gate.
?It?s the same place it?s been for 10 years,? he said.
Customer service representatives told other residents that SoCalGas had experienced a shortage of meter readers in recent months. A dozen Orange County cities are still receiving the new meters.
?They told me they?d estimated my usage because they didn?t have enough meter readers,? said Costa Mesa resident Jessika Fairbarn, whose January bill came in at $135, compared with $18 in December. ?An estimate based on what? That bill was seven times what I?m used to paying.?
Bryce Myrtle of Costa Mesa received similar information that the company ?didn?t have enough meter readers available October, November and December.?
SoCalGas spokesman Mendoza said that if the company experienced a shortage of meter readers, the deficit was not because of job reassignments or layoffs.
?Like any workplace, there are times when employees are not available and when people get sick,? he said.
When estimates are off, the gas company will make adjustments in a future bill, Mendoza said: ?We will print ?estimated bill? on the bill, and we will make any necessary corrections upward or downward when a reading is obtained.?
Customers who suspect their bill is wrong can order a ?high bill? investigation visit.
In the meantime, the company advises customers to turn down their thermostats.
?I?m guilty, too, of cranking up the heat right now,? Silva said. ?We all need to put on our sweaters.?
Contact the writer: sgoulding@ocregister.com and lleung@ocregister.com
