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http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/leads/stories_two/long_20010428.htm

Published Saturday, April 28, 2001, in the Contra Costa Newspapers

Woman hit by $9,700 in PG&E bills The figures include charges from September, not billed before, for use of her new pool heater

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Developments on Friday in California's energy crisis: State power buyers have asked for another $500 million to buy electricity for customers of three cash-strapped utilities. That brings the total amount authorized for power purchases to $6.2 billion since mid-January, when the state began buying power for Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric. Gov. Gray Davis says state office buildings cut energy use by an average of 20 percent in January and February, saving taxpayers $286,000 in utility bills. State officials negotiating long-term power contracts for customers of the three large utilities have secured five more contracts. California Public Utilities Commission attorneys are advising state agencies to avoid submitting monetary claims against PG&E despite the company's bankruptcy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Andy Jokelson TIMES STAFF WRITER

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MARTINEZ -- Four Pacific Gas & Electric Co. bills this week totaling more than $9,700 left Vine Hill resident Karen Long shocked and fuming.

Monday's mail brought a bill for $2,665. Three more came Wednesday -- for $5,054, $1,676 and $353. The four bills include more than $6,000 for natural gas use between Sept. 1 and Jan. 3.

"Amazing, huh? That's for a house," said Long, who last fall installed a back yard swimming pool and gas-fueled pool heater at her four-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot home.

PG&E expects to reduce the charges soon, said spokeswoman Staci Homrig.

Through an error in PG&E's bill-processing system, the company had not billed her for natural gas use from September until catching up in this month's bills, Homrig said. Long's bills for several months charged her only for electricity use, Homrig said.

"The bottom line is that we apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused the customer and we hate to see things like this happen," Homrig said.

The problem arose after a gas meter reading last fall at Long's home showed far higher use than previous readings, Homrig said. In such circumstances, PG&E's automated billing system normally "says stop, this can't be right and ... requires somebody to manually process the bill, figure out what's going on," she said.

"For some reason, this account did not get looked at and get billed current (for natural gas use) for several months." This month's bills resulted from gas use since September, she said.

Homrig said she did not know how much PG&E might reduce Long's bills.

"We want it to be ... fair to the customer, but also recognize that the gas was used and that PG&E did purchase the gas ... so it's not likely that we would be able to write off the whole bill," she said.

Long said she suspected that the bills stemmed from what must have been inaccurate gas meter readings last fall after she installed her pool and an energy-efficient heater.

"There wouldn't be this amount if the meter reader had done his job in the first place and given me the correct bill," said Long, who runs a Martinez bail-bond business.

If the first bill after installation of the pool and heater had been huge, she would have paid it and shut off the heater to save money, she said.

Instead, she continued using the heater and kept receiving, and paying, seemingly normal PG&E bills nowhere near as high as those she saw this week, she said.

She now plans to switch to solar heating for her home and pool, she said.

Her pool heater, which she turned off in mid-April before a trip to Mexico, remains off.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 28, 2001