Cold January Created Extreme Energy Use; High Bills
Media Contact:
Wayne Scarbrough
(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002
wscarbrough@aub.org
January 29, 2018
ATHENS, Tenn. – Following a frigid January that brought single-digit lows and subfreezing daytime highs, AUB reports extremely high energy use and warns that the resulting bills will be shocking for many customers.
“We are warning customers. This is not a drill. Bills are going to be very high. We’ve been warning about this via local media and social media channels, but seeing the actual billing data really brings it home,” said AUB’s Wayne Scarbrough.
Scarbrough said that AUB customers in the Englewood and Niota areas may see the highest consumption of energy on their next bill, because these areas caught both of the month’s extreme cold snaps in their latest billing cycle.
He said that last Friday the billing department brought him a ream of paper that represented customers with extreme high usage, many with 5,000 to 7,000 kilowatt hours of use against a norm of about 1,500 to 2,000 kilowatt hours.
“We sent meter readers out on the most extreme cases to double check the readings, they were just so high. Every single one was verified correct,” he said.
The first seven days of January never got above freezing even during the day. Overnight lows were about 10 degrees each of those nights.
“Then we had another extreme cold snap the fourteenth through the twentieth of the month,” he said.
AUB serves as a reporting station for the National Weather Service.
At AUB’s station in January, fourteen days have been below 20 degrees, with thirteen of those days being 12 degrees or colder.
Nine days in January had daytime highs below 32 degrees.
Scarbrough said he understands that many customers will be angry with AUB.
“It’s natural first to think ‘there is no way’ and to be angry at the messenger. But consider that our rates have been flat every month from November through February, about 8.7 cents per kilowatt hour for power and about 95 cents per therm of natural gas.
If the rate stays the same two months in a row but your bill doubles, what has changed?
“That change is driven by how much energy you used. The resulting bill is not something AUB is doing to you, though we understand how it can feel that way. When we read your meter, we are simply listening to you tell us how much you used that month,” Scarbrough said.
“If you burn only firewood for heat, you’ll still burn a whole lot more when it’s 10 degrees outside, period. You just don’t get a bill for it that has that utility shock factor,” he said.
AUB and the Athens area are not alone when it comes to high use. Utilities across the valley are experiencing an onslaught of feedback about “higher than normal” energy bills.
Social media pages in some regional communities are bubbling with conspiracy talk about “price gouging” by local utilities raising energy prices during the cold weather to create more revenue.
“Nope. That’s not true,” Scarbrough said.
“Local power distributors such as AUB don’t do that, can’t do that by law and wouldn’t do it anyway because it doesn’t serve our communities well. We are public power, part of the community. We’re not for-profit companies with stock holders that expect growing dividends,” he said.
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