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APPLETON - The 94 electric utilities operating
in Wisconsin imposed $6.3 million in back charges on nearly 7,700 customers
last year due to faulty meters, data entry mistakes and other issues,
according to a newspaper analysis.
State law allows utilities to back-bill for
up to two years of errors, even those caused by the utilities. Utility
officials contend that the law requires them to make the corrections. The
officials told The Post-Crescent that back-billing situations are
unfortunate but sometimes unavoidable, and the state's system for making
adjustments works.
Brian Carriere of Star Prairie in
northwestern Wisconsin might disagree. "We had kind of a
nightmare," said Carriere, who was hit with a nearly $1,000 back charge
in 2009 from Northern States Power Co.
The utility told Carriere it had
underestimated his bills during an eight-month span when the utility was
unable to access his home's meter.
Scott Meske, associate director for Municipal
Electric Utilities of Wisconsin, an association representing 82
municipal-owned utilities, said the system isn't perfect, but neither are
electric meters.
While utilities back-billed $6.3 million last
year, they also refunded $5.2 million in overcharges to about 2,800
customers.
State Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, who
introduced legislation this year to end back-billing, said the sheer number
of billing mistakes uncovered by the newspaper was troubling.
"In this era of technology, they ought
to be able to come up with a process to identify how much they are selling
to the customer," he said of the utilities. "And they ought to be
able to do that without 11,000 mistakes."
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