More Sandy Fallout: LIPA bills customers as if nothing happened.

"LIPA customers who spent weeks without power got zapped with their normal electric bills — as if the outages never happened.

The clueless utility charged Sandy-soaked Long Island residents an estimated rate that covered the entire billing cycle, and the statements made no mention of potential refunds to account for the prolonged blackouts."

See full link here

To see some companies, particularly government-run companies, apparently taking advantage of these victim really steams my clam. Heck, even our comcast bill reflects what were, to me, a fair discount applied for interupted service.

I feel blessed that we got through this catastrophe with what were minor inconveniences, particularly after seeing what friends, relatives, and neighbors, had to contend with.

Immediately after the storm let up it was readily apparent that work was being done and the results could be seen daily. Truckloads of sparkly power transformers drove by our house (it's on a main route). There were lots of trees that took down power lines and blocking roads. There are still an amazing number of huge uprooted tree trunks with root systems lying around that will eventually disappear and you can see where the roads were blocked because of this.

Oh, kudos to our Governer, Chris Christie. He handled this great and came out a rock star.

[/rant off]

Do they charge a fixed monthly rate and then reconcile at some point based on usage? I pay a fixed monthly rate on my hydro bill (Americans say Electric company/bill, Canadians say Hydro company/bill. Bet you didn't know that :)), but then every six months the Hydro company comes to read my meter and reconciles. If I used less than I pay for it shows as a credit on my next month's bill.

In the case of a catastrophe like Sandy, I would expect to get billed my fixed amount, but it would come back to me during the reconciliation.

Dunno about LIPA (Long Island Power Authority). We use PSE&G (Public Service Power & Gas) and they charge for usage on a monthly basis. We have devices on the outside of our house which allows their meter-readers to simply get near it to get a reading. We also have one in our cellar so we can verify any questions should they arise. So far, they've been pretty close.

Our bills do vary since we use gas for heat and it goes up in the winter and down in the summer, just the opposite of our electric bill which goes up in the summer months when we use air conditioning.

Again, I would expect an adjustment from LIPA and I would accept a "computer glitch" as a valid explanation for this.

I do hope LIPA will adjust the bills in the future to compensate for the loss of power. As usual, I'll be keeping an eye on what goes on here and will report back if they do make good for this. Keep in mind that Governor Cuomo passed a bill specifically aimed at this company's specious actions (see link) and this is also the same company referenced in that video I posted in the middle of that union thread.

...I wish we could make more use of hydro generated electricity.

"New York (CNN) -- The Long Island Power Authority said Tuesday its customers -- many of them in areas hard-hit by Superstorm Sandy -- can wait for the next meter-reading cycle to pay their power bills.

Customers also can make a partial payment reflecting what they think is appropriate, and then wait for the exact reading to pay the difference, LIPA spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said.

The announcement came after outraged customers questioned why they were receiving electricity bills post-Sandy that reflected a full month's use of electricity, even though many were without power for days or weeks.

The utility had said Monday that it was sending out bills based on customers' estimated usage of the same month last year, because it had reassigned its meter readers to help with power restoration efforts after Sandy."

See linky

OK, I can understand that, but doncha think it would ave been nice to have included a one-page enclosure with the bills explaining this? This would have saved adding to all all the grief and worry these people already suffered.