((Edited to add link to petition – Feb. 17, 8 p.m.)
By Michael V. Hannigan
The frustration for some area residents is running as high as their electric bill, leaving them questioning, “why is my electric bill so high“?
Angry Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative customers have taken to social media to air complaints about electric bills that doubled or more last month. To see if you can save money by switching your energy supplier, check out a comparison site like https://www.moneyexpert.com/gas-electricity/.
A Facebook page titled “Fight Against TVEC” has been created and in days it has nearly 2,500 members. There are hundreds of examples on the page of customers complaining of bills that have doubled in January and run as high as $1,000.
Phillipe Gregorio posted on the page, echoing the sentiment of thousands: “This is ruining some lives. We are talking about people’s lives and their ability to put food on their table. I am not asking for free electricity but I am asking for competitively priced and free of corruption electricity.”
TVEC’s answers haven’t done much to ease the tension. On its Facebook page Monday night, the company blamed the weather.
“The most recent bills have been higher than the prior month due to colder temperatures. Comparing usage from the same period of the previous year will likely reveal similar usage,” the statement reads in part.
In an interview with the Palestine Herald-Press last week, TVEC CEO Jerry Boze said, “The consumer is the one that controls the amount of usage. We want people to be as comfortable as they want to be in their homes, but we don’t dictate how they use their energy.”
Customers unhappy with those answers created a petition to try and get a special meeting with the TVEC board.
I reached out to the office of State Rep. Stuart Spitzer, M.D. about the issue and received the following response:
“We have also received complaints from our constituents, both Representative Spitzer and Robert Shulter, Chief of Staff have spoken with Jerry Boze, Chairman/CEO of TVEC regarding the issue. Unfortunately the previous month was a colder month resulting in more electricity use leading to higher customer bills. Both Dr. Spitzer and Mr. Shulter experienced the same increased billing on their home accounts with TVEC and while no one likes a higher bill they have accepted TVEC’s explanation of the increase.”
Other Factors
I spoke with Jeff Jordan, the communications coordinator at TVEC, this afternoon and learned there are two specific items that could have impacted bills on top of the cold weather.
First, TVEC’s billing cycle varies from 28 days to 33 days. It is possible that some customers may have had a five-day increase in their billing cycle from the previous month. That would represent an almost 18 percent increase in kilowatt hours used for that customer even if all things were equal.
Second, there has recently been a 1 cent per kilowatt hour increase in the TVEC rate because of the wholesale cost of electricity. That represents an 8.3 percent increase in the cost of kilowatt hours at the exact time costumer usage was spiking. Energy consumers that are unhappy with these rises in pricing are looking to change their Texan energy provider to somewhere else, such as looking at Ambit Energy rates and comparing the prices to their current TVEC rate.
“That (extra cent) is a direct pass through,” said Jordan. “We are a not-for-profit and don’t make any money.”
Jordan said higher bills coming with cold weather is “not unique to TVEC and not unique to 2015.”
Across the State
The story is the same around Texas: Bills that have doubled or more, electric company officials blaming the weather and customers taking to social media to vent their frustration.
It is happening again and again in Port Aransas, Cibolo, Paris, Rusk, Palestine, Llano, Kaufman, Athens and more.
State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Palestine represents 19 counties, including Henderson County, so I asked the Senator about the impact around the state and received the following statement:
“My office has received phone calls from individuals who are concerned about the rising cost of their electric bills. With these and any further calls we will continue to work with them and the appropriate state agencies to address their issues.”
The Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel (OPUC) says on its website it has a compact with Texans for “providing the highest quality legal, professional and technical representation to utility consumers, as a class, to ensure affordable and reliable utility services.”
But when reached this afternoon, an official with that office said utility co-ops don’t fall under the OPUC.
Ours is over $100 more. And we were without power for an entire day
So let me get this straight. First, according to the statement Jeff released on the tvec fb page, he states that there has been NO rate increase since 2008. Then he keeps that same story with another reporter. NOW, he’s saying there HAS been an increase?!
TVEC has not raised its rate since 2008.
There is an adjustment on the bill for the wholesale price of electric, which TVEC calls the “Power Cost Recovery Factor” or PCRF. Up until recently, that has been zero or even a negative number (yes, you could get money back for this), according to Jeff Jordan of TVEC. … In the past couple of months, that has gone to 1 cent per Kilowatt hour, which represents an 8.3 percent increase in the cost of your electric.
It is not TVEC raising the rate, but rather an adjustment based on the wholesale cost statewide that happens automatically. …. Jordan called it a direct pass through cost.
Which is how you end up paying more per kilowatt hour without TVEC raising the rate.
It was listed as a factor for the increased cost in TVEC’s statement, just not explained.
We have StarTex, and we had a pretty substantial increase as well. They blamed it on Oncor. The company that owns and maintains the power grig (lines, poles and transformers)… Just that cost alone this month was nearly $100. The bill, which rarely gets over $150, was nearly $300. But that doesn’t really matter. If the rates are the same, and the usage is only a little more. Then the bill should be a little more. Someone is gouging us somewhere. And i doubt we’ll get much help from it, since most of our politicians are tied to power and oil companies.
Yes I totally agrees they r very outstanding and redicoulous prices ours was over 200more than any other time what the hell is going on and why r they charging more on late fee when its already been paid can u explain that
If this us a Co-op and a NOT FOR PROFIT organization, then where is my dividend check? Just to get a deposit check back, it took over six weeks! When I called and asked for my check to be mailed, the man that I talked to told me he forgot!! WTH?? U forgot? What kind of business r u running here? If I had “forgot” to pay you, you would have turned my ELECTRICITY OFF! I will never again live ANY WHERE that TVEC supplies the electricity!
These high electric bills are for usage in January. TVEC is claiming that the increase is due to colder temperatures during that billing cycle. According to several weather sites, the average mean temperature in January of this year was only one degree lower than January of last year. The bills for January usage last year were not out of line like they are this year. If you factor in the one cent per kWh increase and the 33 day billing cycle that is 26.3%. How do they justify the 200, 300% increase in the bills? My bill went up 50% and after reading these posts, I feel lucky. As for other electric providers billing their customers in the same way as TVEC, how many of those are owned by Touchstone too? Usery? Collusion? Price fixing? Gouging? No matter what you call it, it’s wrong to over charge for essential service.
TVEC is always pulling something. We paid our bill but were disconnected for non-payment when I proved the bill was paid before the due date and showed them a copy of my bank and the bank even called to confirm they said we did something wrong but we always paid our bill at the office in Athens.
TVEC then told us we would have to pay an additional deposit plus re-connect fee to get a service restored.
when we bought an new house over the summer I sat down and called all the utilities at one time and guess which utility was never disconnected so not only did I not get our deposit back I had to pay an extra month of usage for an unoccupied home, which was higher than any previous months when the home had our family living it.
TVEC holds its customers hostage because they have no other choice and need to be investigated for their business practices.
Our 1st month in a new home. 1st week, when electric was running 100% of time, got billed $83 for 755 kW… next bill, for 4 wks, was almost $600,with 5300/kW. Yep, SEVEN times the amount of usage for only 4x billing cycle. I’ve played Monopoly before, but TVEC is good… real good
While does TVEC
Not let u switch to other
Companies
I was told no u cannot
Switch to another company