Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Is SDG&E’s Prorating Method Fair?

The amount owed on your latest SDG&E bill may have been arrived at with the help of a little proration that cost you some extra money.

SDG&E split my billing cycle of 33 days into one period of 26 days and one period of 7 days and charged different electrical usage rates for each, due to an approved rate change. But, they did this without knowing exactly how much electricity I used in either portion of the month because I do not have a “Smart Meter” installed!

A senior billing person at SDG&E agreed with me that the company had only read my meter at the beginning and at the end of the month, not at the beginning — at the end of the first rate change and then at the end of the month — which would have resulted in them knowing exactly how much electricity I used in each "period.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

So, for all their 700,000 customers without new Smart Meters, they used something called "proration of consumption" (POC) in each period and charged you the "extra" amount — even though they had no way of knowing how much electricity was used because they did not read the meter at the end of each period. (Had you been traveling away from home during the rate change and used almost no electricity, the calculation on the estimated portion of your bill would have been based on the electricity used before the rate change, when you were home).

Instead of changing rates at the start of the next billing cycle, the California Public Utilities Commission allows SDG&E to use POC to implement the rate increase, which is good for SDG&E but does not seem fair. Depending on your usage and/or if the number of prorated days are larger, your POC calculation is variable.

Depending upon where “Smart Meter-less” folks fell in the 21 different SDG&E "billing cycles," their POC would be — for a few customers — lower (folks that had less than 7 of 33 days of rate increase) and for the rest much higher (folks that had more than 7 of 33 days of rate increase, [i.e., 29 of 33 days of rate increase]).

On my bill, I got charged $2 more, and that was because I only had 198 kWh of Tier 3 usage billed at the higher amount during 7 of 33 days. As an example, there are now about 700,000 SDG&E customers who do not yet have Smart Meters installed; at an estimated "POC" of $2 each, that's $1,400,000 SDG&E made.

Here is who to contact for more information: SDG&E: (800) 411-7343; California Public Utilities Commission: (866) 849-8390, and here’s a link to lodge CPUC complaints.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob

The amount owed on your latest SDG&E bill may have been arrived at with the help of a little proration that cost you some extra money.

SDG&E split my billing cycle of 33 days into one period of 26 days and one period of 7 days and charged different electrical usage rates for each, due to an approved rate change. But, they did this without knowing exactly how much electricity I used in either portion of the month because I do not have a “Smart Meter” installed!

A senior billing person at SDG&E agreed with me that the company had only read my meter at the beginning and at the end of the month, not at the beginning — at the end of the first rate change and then at the end of the month — which would have resulted in them knowing exactly how much electricity I used in each "period.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

So, for all their 700,000 customers without new Smart Meters, they used something called "proration of consumption" (POC) in each period and charged you the "extra" amount — even though they had no way of knowing how much electricity was used because they did not read the meter at the end of each period. (Had you been traveling away from home during the rate change and used almost no electricity, the calculation on the estimated portion of your bill would have been based on the electricity used before the rate change, when you were home).

Instead of changing rates at the start of the next billing cycle, the California Public Utilities Commission allows SDG&E to use POC to implement the rate increase, which is good for SDG&E but does not seem fair. Depending on your usage and/or if the number of prorated days are larger, your POC calculation is variable.

Depending upon where “Smart Meter-less” folks fell in the 21 different SDG&E "billing cycles," their POC would be — for a few customers — lower (folks that had less than 7 of 33 days of rate increase) and for the rest much higher (folks that had more than 7 of 33 days of rate increase, [i.e., 29 of 33 days of rate increase]).

On my bill, I got charged $2 more, and that was because I only had 198 kWh of Tier 3 usage billed at the higher amount during 7 of 33 days. As an example, there are now about 700,000 SDG&E customers who do not yet have Smart Meters installed; at an estimated "POC" of $2 each, that's $1,400,000 SDG&E made.

Here is who to contact for more information: SDG&E: (800) 411-7343; California Public Utilities Commission: (866) 849-8390, and here’s a link to lodge CPUC complaints.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Top Websites To Buy Instagram Likes + Bonus Tip!

Next Article

Reader 1st place writing contest winner gets kudos

2nd place winner not so much
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.