I am an equal-pay FortisBC Customer. This month, I received a notice with the monthly bill announcing that my equal payment will jump from $83 per month to $135 per month.
This is almost a 64 per cent increase.
I called the FortisBC customer help line and was told that there have been couple of increases approved by the regulator (all add up to less than six per cent), but the hydro usage at my residence went up significantly causing the increase in monthly payment.
I have now written to FortisBC, to express my concern about the huge increase and to explain there was no significant change in the power usage in our household recently, or since we began living at our house in 1979.
I have been inquiring with my friends and relatives to learn if the increase in my hydro bill was unique. To my surprise, I learned that everyone that I have checked with so far (four individuals living in four different parts of Kelowna) has experienced even a larger percentage increase in their monthly hydro bill.
I am writing this letter to alert FortisBC hydro consumers to check their bills. If this huge increase is universal, then it can't be attributed to a sudden higher usage.
It is my opinion there must be some other cause (computer glitch?) for the meter readings to show a higher usage than actually is the case.
If many FortisBC hydro customers have had a whopping increase in their power bill this month, which FortisBC attributes to a higher level of hydro usage than in the recent past, then all of us should together make a representation to FortisBC, to review the hydro service for reliability of the meters as well as accuracy of the computers that produce the bills.
Murli Pendharkar,
Kelowna