As PPL Electric Utilities customers are paying more due to a recent price increase, the company also reported a glitch that may have resulted in customers seeing incorrect bills.
“While data from customer meters was being gathered as usual, a technical system issue made the data temporarily unavailable in the systems that generate bills and display customer usage data,” PPL spokeswoman Jane George said.
Some customers received estimated bills with January or February due dates, she said.
“These estimated bills were based on the customer’s historical electricity use,” George said.
PPL resolved the technical system issue and began generating bills with amounts due that reflect customers’ actual electricity use, she noted.
The company is asking customers to pay the estimated bill amount.
“If there is any difference between the estimated bill and actual usage, it will be reconciled on their next bill,” George said.
She did not say how many of the company’s 1.4 million customers were impacted by the error.
She noted that in the case of the “technical system issue,” the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has guidelines whereby a utility can bill using estimated usage data.
George noted that customer usage data, including historical usage, is again available on the self-service portion of the PPL website at www.pplelectric.com.
According to information from the PUC, those who have problems should contact their utility before filing a complaint through the PUC.
Common informal complaints include residential billing issues, service quality and payment arrangement requests.