Feb 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Don Markus The Baltimore Sun



As conditions return to normal after historic back-to-back snowstorms, a not-so-gentle reminder of days spent watching television, surfing the Internet and warming by the space heater will be in the mail shortly.

Get ready for your next electric bill.

Marylanders such as Cecilia Rubiera are bracing for it, as if it were another round of impending wintry weather.

Rubiera, a Baltimore City schools employee, predicted that her next statement from Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. "is going to be ridiculous."

 So thinks Sarah Hedges, who wrote in a tweet to The Baltimore Sun that she was "very worried" about her next bill because "it's screamingly high to begin with," and peak seasons "always make it astronomical."

After her most recent bill was nearly double that of the previous month, Rubiera tried to be as energy-efficient as possible while holed up in her Randallstown apartment waiting out the storms.

"Every time I left a room, I was thinking I should turn off the light," said Rubiera, who is also a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University. But Rubiera concedes that she occupied much of her time working on the computer and watching television. "I probably watched three hours a day, which I normally don't do," she said.

In that way, she was like many of the hundreds of thousands of BGE's 1.2 million customers who were stuck in their homes for days. For those fortunate enough not to lose power, nearly every activity was an energy guzzler.

"When folks are at home watching television, playing video games, cooking, all those activities need electricity," BGE spokeswoman Linda Foy said. "This time of year normally is when people see an increase in their electric bills."

Estimated readings

BGE is still determining what effect the snowstorms will have on an average customer's usage, Foy said. Because the snowstorms impeded the job of meter readers, most in the region will see estimated readings on their next bill.

"Within a week after receiving their bill, customers can call us with the actual readings and we will generate a new bill," Foy said.

Not everyone will get the bad news on the same day, since BGE operates on 29 different billing cycles, Foy said. What might help is that the February bill will include a $100 credit to all of the utility's customers, as part of the Public Service Commission's approval of a deal allowing a French company, EDF Group, to invest $4.5 billion in BGE parent Constellation Energy's nuclear power business.

Chad Myers of White Marsh is concerned about his bill after the December-January total for his two-bedroom apartment was equal to what he paid a year ago for a three-story condominium across the street. On top of that, a bill for a 31-day period last month was double what a 35-day period cost the previous month.

Retroactive sign-up

While some who lost power in the storms might appreciate the savings, there are relatively few of those customers. Fewer than 10 percent of BGE accounts were out during the first of twin storms; fewer than 5 percent went down during the second.

In early January, amid forecasts of a colder winter than usual, BGE suggested customers enroll in budget billing -- paying the average monthly bill over a year's time. Foy said customers will be allowed to retroactively sign up for the cost-smoothing plan because of the snowstorms.

Darleen Ridgley's husband, son and three grandchildren were hunkered in their Catonsville home for most of last week. But because of the budget-billing plan, she has no worries about "a $600 bill I wasn't expecting."

There were 305 hours in December during which the temperature was at or below 32 degrees, BGE officials said, making it a colder month than during the previous December, when there were 212 hours of freezing-or-below temperatures. In November, there were only 16 hours when the temperature was at or below freezing.

Spike with heat pumps

"The frigid temperatures that gripped BGE's Central Maryland service area last month no doubt accounted for significant increases in energy usage for some customers," Mark D. Case, senior vice president of strategy and regulatory affairs for BGE, said in a news release last month.

"Customers who heat with electric heat pumps will likely see the most significant increases in usage because more expensive auxiliary heating is typically activated whenever the temperature dips to 32 degrees or below," Case said.

Foy, like many BGE customers, worked from home for much of the recent snowstorms. And, like many other customers, Foy anticipates that her next bill will be higher than the last.

"There are no employee discounts," she said.

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