Posted on 03/12/2022 6:17:40 AM PST by 4Runner
Below is the text of a complaint we filed today with the Florida Public Service Commission:
This electric utility contacted us a month ago and informed us that power usage in our residence had increased over the past 12 months (How--and Why? We are a couple in our 70's and have lived in this house for 38 years. Nothing has changed. If anything, we have been upgrading to more energy efficient appliances as needed!)
At the time of the "notice", our bill under TECO's "averaging" program was a whopping $164.00 per month. If we were ever a day late in paying this bill we immediately received a threatening postcard warning us our service would be shut off if we did not immediately pay the bill.
We have a perfect payment record with TECO going back 38 years in this residence. So this month the TECO bill increased from $164 to an unbelievable $200.00. This, without so much as a single public or governmental hearing to justify this degree of a raise in electrical usage and cost. Thirty-six dollars.
In October of 2021 a close relative of ours and a resident of Pinellas County died. For estate purposes, the family has been keeping up assessment and utility payments at the deceased relatives' condo in Tarpon Springs. It is 1200 square feet while our residence is 1550 sq ft.
The bills we are getting from Duke Energy are around $46.00 a month while the condo is unoccupied. The last month it was occupied the bill was for $87.55. This has been an eye-opening experience for us and has made us realize the extent of the corruption in Hillsborough County and the political games being played at the expense of the residents who are responsible and pay their bills.
Clearly what is going on in Hillsborough County is extreme dereliction of duty on the part of the County government. We know full well why our electric bill has become a mortgage payment. It is because we are having to pay for the residents in this county who do not pay their bills but who will never be threatened with service disruption because the corporatist socialist TECO is fearful of rioting and civil disorder if it were ever to terminate service to this particular population group which is now over one million statewide due to massive exodus over the past several years from Haiti and Puerto Rico.
The same ones who drive without insurance and get away with it because law enforcement is now non-existent in Hillsborough thanks to Sheriff DeBartolo. (No that's his real name not the phony "Chronister" moniker.) We are being forced to pay for the people who don't.
Two hundred dollars a month is an absolute outrage for electricity for two people over the age of 70. In a 1550 sq ft dwelling. Hillsborough is the worst county in the State of Florida. We will be contacting Governor DeSantis' office on this matter and demanding an investigation because we know the PSC are nothing but TECO's "rubber stamp"
Go on. Tell us how our two-hundred-dollar-a- month electric bill is justified. In corporate-speak. Go ahead.
Just how f'n stupid do you think we are?
My bill here in San Diego
had and still have a one bedroom apt - lived in Pacific Beach for 5 years no a/c or heat ever used and my bill was $120 per month. Moved to Ft Worth Texas in 2019 in retirement, even with 100 degree summers and 20 degree winters my bill was never over $40
Renewable energy apparently costs a lot more to produce.
A person must be awfully spoiled to call 200 bucks a mortgage payment sized bill. Quit whining. I just a paid a 450 dollar utility bill for last month. Nothing I can do about unless I want to freeze in the dark.
This is easy to do. Done years ago out here in CaCaLand.
What was done was to create some usage levels, or pools. If you consume from x-y, you pay $/WH. If y-z, you pay $$/WH, etc.
Now, the trick is to constantly lower the levels. Yes, lower. So, your actual consumption never changes but you move from one tier to the higher priced one.
Then, they report average consumption by $$$ spent, not WH.
So, even if no one consumes even more electricity than 5 years ago, it looks like everyone is consuming more. And, all of this is done without a rate increase approval from the utility commission.
Welcome to your Green new world.
“In October of 2021 a close relative of ours and a resident of Pinellas County died. For estate purposes, the family has been keeping up assessment and utility payments at the deceased relatives’ condo in Tarpon Springs. It is 1200 square feet while our residence is 1550 sq ft.
The bills we are getting from Duke Energy are around $46.00 a month while the condo is unoccupied. The last month it was occupied the bill was for $87.55”
Perhaps when you have a chance you could cite the past and present actual energy usage. I the charges are going up, amount used would be the place to start the discussion.
Summers, before we moved, had a Florida horse farm, (lots of well use), air conditioning house, everything , electric utilities were never more than 250$, Clay Electric.
Sounds like someone is running a service cord from the back of your house.
Congress just gave itself a 21% raise in that new bill , congress is telling the US to GET STUFFED
$46.00 a month while the condo is unoccupied. The last month it was occupied the bill was for $87.55”
That states one was unoccupied and one was occupied. I was asking about your comment that the rate went up when it was unoccupied.
. Waste of readers’ time.
We all know that it’s unlikely that the bill will change, but it costs nothing to listen and be kind. You could say, as others have, “uh huh, we feel your pain.”
That may be all the satisfaction that OP gets.
Some times people aren’t looking for solutions, just sympathy, especially when dealing with powers-that- be… (no pun intended)
If there’s nat gas being used for electric power generation, that’s the reason.
How f’n stupid. Pretty much there. So much missing information. But nice rant. You just forgot get off my lawn.
You mean this part:
The bills we are getting from Duke Energy are around $46.00 a month while the condo is unoccupied. The last month it was occupied the bill was for $87.55.
I look forward to your explanation of how $46 is greater than $87. That is, if you can spare some time from your self righteous blubbering. Better use of your time might be a reading comprehension course - start at remedial level.
You have forgotten the maxim: "All politics are local" (pun intended).
Try reading the article before you join the fray. Your comments will make a lot more sense that way.
Do you have electric heat, heat pump or resistance? Secondly
did you have an unusual cold spell during this time? Also it
could be an over read.
That does not read how you think it reads. They have been paying $46/month since the owner died and they took over the bills. When the owner lived there, his or her last bill was $87.55. They are stating that a similar-sized condo bill in a different county with a different power company is far lower than their bills. They are comparing the $87.55 while occupied to their bills of nearly $200.
I’m in Vista. Not much need for heat or air. Bill has gone from an average of around $175 to $300. And that is going from 5 people to 2 in the house.
Water has done the same.
Wow. That’s expensive. I freak out when it’s 200 bucks a month. The august bill is up there and January and February makes up for it.
When it starts with a lie, the domino affect begins. All to prop up a stooge who thought he was FINALLY going to be important.
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