DEAR PROBE

Q

Imperial Irrigation District says, “We are installing new, better, more accurate meters.” Better for who? Better for the IID (more money). … I had a $143 monthly average plan. As of July, it went up to $261! … Look into it for our community. … The key here is how many other homes are being affected.

A

We think the implication here is that a wave of new meters have been installed and rates are going up for residents. We’re not sure exactly what we’re looking into, so we threw out a number of questions to IID officials to see what we would get back. We asked about new meters being installed and whether a number of them are going in. The short answer was, no. New meters are being installed, yes, but only as aging meters are replaced in the normal system maintenance IID does, according to an IID spokesman. “Meters have not changed billing. New meters are being installed to keep up with technology and replace aging meters, but the meter (old or new) does not have an effect on rates nor on the rate of electrical consumption by individual customers,” IID responded in an email. “IID’s rates remain stable and have been unchanged for some time (IID continues to have some of the lowest energy rates in California).” As far as why the IID customer’s rates went up, the spokesman couldn’t say.

“When an issue comes up about billing, what we typically see is an increase in energy consumption by consumers. This is often related to weather conditions, either a malfunctioning appliance or use of additional appliances in the home, or an increase in household members. “July, August and September make up the ‘high bill’ season. We have customers checking with us to see if their bills are accurate, and we encourage this.

“When a customer calls us about a high bill, we will look at the customer’s history and review the bill for accuracy. We can also check meter readings, the meter itself and discuss with the customer possible ways to conserve energy. To do so, please give our Customer Service Center a call at (800) 303-7756,” according to the email. In IID’s service area, there are about 156,000 customer meters, and they have a “useful operating life” of about 20 years. There are few old analog meters left in the system. In fact, according to the IID’s email, in the next two years all the meters should be digital.

IID does let consumers know about a few simple things that can help with energy consumption, such as setting the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher, turning off lights and fans when leaving a room, using shades and blinds in a home to block the sun from overheating your home, etc. Call the Customer Service Center for more of that kind of information.