Electric customers feel winter's costly impact

A few years back, Kerri Heaney thought she would save money by dropping Delmarva Power and signing a one-year contract with Liberty Power Holdings for her electricity supply.

The contract expired, but she thought nothing of it until last month, when she received a $950 supply charge on her power bill for her Prices Corner-area farmhouse. It was nearly three times what she had paid the month before, despite the fact her family had used less electricity.

"Just looking at it, seeing it on paper, it was like, holy smokes, that's a huge jump," Heaney said.

People who buy their electricity from Delmarva Power, or those who have an active contract with a competitive supplier, are merely using more electricity during an especially cold winter. But customers like Heaney, whose supplier contract has lapsed, generally are experiencing price shock this winter, confirmed David Bonar, state public advocate.

Those customers have seen their per-kilowatt-hour rate mirror spot electricity market rates, which have increased more than 400 percent in the past two months, according to information released by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid manager.

Public Service Commission spokesman Matt Hartigan reported there have been 53 complaints about high bills from alternative electricity suppliers so far this year, across four different suppliers. By contrast, there have been no complaints about Delmarva's electricity charges, he said.

READ MORE:  http://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/2014/03/02/electric-customers-feel-winters-costly-impact/5955275/