'I can't do this every month': Edmond residents claim to see massive increase in electric bills, some even billed twice
EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR)- The topic of Edmond electric bills is a hot one on social media as dozens of residents shared the total of their most recent bill.
Some Edmond Facebook users claimed to have electric bills as high as $650, $800, and $900.
One Edmond dad who declined an on-camera interview told KFOR he's paying between $750 and $900 a month for utilities.
"It's completely changing our budget," he added. "It comes directly out of our portion set aside for fun things to do with our kids. I'm not happy about it, as it's more than doubled in a year."
The City of Edmond Public Information Officer, Casey Moore said electric bills are typically higher than normal during the summer months.
"The bills that people have been receiving, that's for the time frame in July, which we know was the hottest part of our summer, [it] was the dry part of the summer," Moore explained.
The bill also isn't just for electricity. Moore said it includes trash and water as well.
"Unfortunately, yes, a lot of people are receiving high bills for a lot of usage during the July time period," said Moore.
Moore also said there is a fuel adjustment cost that is included into every utility bill. As the cost of energy rises, so does that adjustment cost that's put on customers.
Moore told KFOR the fuel adjustment cost will be increasing by two cents per kilowatt-hour in September.
The high billing isn't the only concern that was raised over social media though.
"I got 2 bills this month. [I] called and they gave me some bs excuse that made absolutely no sense. Anyone else get 2 bills in August?," Edmond resident, Alan Colvin posted in an Edmond Facebook group.
News 4 spoke with Colvin in which he said he has never received two electric bills within in the same month. He has been a resident of Edmond for 50 years.
According to the first bill he received, he was being charged for May-June. The total was $213.56 and was due August 4.
Colvin's second bill arrived on August 1 for $247.45 for June-July. The due date was set for August 25.
Colvin called the City of Edmond, looking for an explanation as to why two electric bills were due in the same month, but he said he was left more confused after the call.
"They said because there was a holiday, I guess, or referring to the 4th of July, I'm not real sure but it threw their billing cycle off and they were billing two weeks ahead of schedule instead of every 30 days out. So I didn't understand it," stated Colvin.
The city offered a payment plan, according to Colvin, but he said he paid everything in full.
"When you're budgeting for everything and, you know, that trips you up a little bit," he added. "We had tightened things up, you know, but I mean, I can't do this every month, but, you know, we were able to do it this month. Does it mean we were happy about it? I didn't think [there was] anything I could do about it."
Moore said two utility bills in one month isn't new, but it doesn't happen often.
"We have a bunch of different billing cycles, so roughly 40,000 different customer accounts and there's a lot of billing cycles. So not everybody's bill goes out at the same time. They go out in batches and that cycles all throughout every month. Those billing cycles are typically between 25 and 35 days. And we also don't send bills on Fridays, which allows us to make sure there's no overlap," explained Moore.
Moore told KFOR when there's a holiday, because the city doesn't have smart meters, they have to decide whether to send out their physical meter readers before or after the holiday.
"If it goes late, then it throws things off much worse than if it goes early," he said.
Just because a resident may receive two bills in one month though doesn't mean they'll have a bill the next month.
"What will happen is there will not be a bill for that next month. So it's not like there's an extra bill. It's just a more condensed billing cycle," said Moore.
The City of Edmond will be installing new smart meters throughout the community for both electric and water
"The program is called Smart Choice, and it essentially will help customers in both of these situations. One, it will allow us to no longer have to build our billing cycles around meter readers, so everything will be more on a true 30 day cycle because we can get those rates instantly instead of having to send people out in the field," added Moore.
This program will also allow residents to monitor their usage in real time whereas the current meters don't allow for that.
Moore expects the installation to be complete within the next year or two.
If you feel there is a discrepancy with your utility bill, you can call the Edmond Electric customer service line at 405-359-4541.