"  "My PG&E bill went from $87 to $201" between July and August, said Darlene Nichols "There's something going on with PG&E," she said. "There's something going on that's not right."

The state Public Utilities Commission reported that it has heard from 48 PG&E customers statewide who wanted to file complaints about the SmartMeters and the company.

Some PG&E customers have also reached out to The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates on behalf of California's utility customers."

THAT is what needs to happen, we ALL need to file a formal complaint with the PUC today! 48 customers in Cali wont be noticed, 4 million WILL !

My home thermostat is always set @ 84*, with fans helping cool as much as possible. We got the SmartMeter installed over a year ago, i really dont think that is the issue or problem...it's the baseline increase that they SNEAK into our bills! Our monthly bills in the summer regularly run in teh $200's (yuck)
BUT

this last bill was $525

what the hell?  we can't afford that! i am having to make payments for that balance, only to be hit again this next month too.

how can this be legal actually?

i am filing a complaint with the PUC immediately, and i hope others will also!

My previous bill was $130.54. This last bill was $250. 64. No difference in what I'm using or doing. I just don't get it. Have the termostat set at 78. Somethimes at night set it at 79. Strange!

Come to think of it CB, that is where the money went for two weeks of not smoking. I knew that money went somewhere...

Goldi-you should just delete that post. It really confused me at first, thought it was an error but then realized the margins are blown.

We got a notice in the mail this week saying in the next couple of weeks they will be upgrading our smart meter. I'm not really looking forward to this.

M-1075 (new at this, but OK, i think i fixed the error)  LOL

...we got a smart meter installed 2 summers ago, and we were really nervous. it didnt seem to affect the monthly bills. ours are always a bit high. even when we have our A/C set on 84* all the time. huff-huff

BUT ~ this last months spike from our $250ish - to $525 is ridiculous, that is full-on pirate mode for PGE

The C PUC has on on-line complaint screen, so i logged onto that.

No problem goldi. Just helping ya out and much better.

First off, if you're going to cut and paste from a website, for the sake of the margins, use the "Paste as Text" icon for the blogs.

Secondly, these new meters are a GOOD thing. The original SmartMeters in town induce dirty power to communicate with PG&E. This can freak out certain electronic devices, causing them to die prematurely. I had PG&E come out last fall and install the first generation of the radio-based SmartMeter after the dirty power SmartMeter killed my computer's UPS (battery backup) device. The poor UPS thought the power had gone out every time the dirty power SmartMeter sent data back to PG&E. Eventually the UPS cycled on and off battery enough times, that it died at 2am one day with a screeching alarm. Now my UPS could beep at me to let me know something was up, but other electronics can't. And they are likely experiencing similar damage every time PG&E calls home with the dirty power SmartMeters. The radio-based SmartMeters will not cause this sort of damage.

Thirdly, for those who are complaining their bill went up with the SmartMeter, stop quoting dollars and start quoting kilowatt hours. Dollars are just what you are being charged. Kilowatt hours are what you actually used. You can be charged different amounts for the same usage (just look how much the price of a gallon of gas changes). The PUC isn't going to take your complaint seriously if you don't understand this. Additionally, old meters can read up to 30% lower than the actual usage. Some people may have been the "unlucky" ones to be getting a meter-induced discount in their bill with their old meters. Any meter change would have caused the "jump" in usage because it was actually the old meter that was wrong. Again, the PUC isn't going to care about your complaint if the old meter was measuring low and the new meter is measuring appropriately.

Finally, no one I personally know has seen a jump in their usage when the SmartMeter was installed. Some saw the normal summer spike because of using the A/C, but it was comparable to their summer usage in years past. The only ones with complaints were ones having issues with the dirty power those SmartMeters caused and issues with the install of the SmartMeter.

As an aside on the people who seem unable to comprehend the using the A/C is going to drive up their electric bill (I'm talking to you goldilox and Proam), my A/C is set at 84F and it was on over 200 hours in July. For June, it was on 100 hours. Up to this point this month, it's been on 60 hours. How do I know this? My less than $40 7-day programmable thermostat tracks that. I push a button and it tells me how long the AC has been on today, yesterday, this week, last week and this month. Now, I have my A/C set high and it was still on TWICE as often in July as it was the other months. This is not suprising since it was over 100F so many days in July and many of those were actually over 105F, with a few days over 110F. If you have your A/C set lower than 84F, it quite likely could have been on over half the day during those hot days.

THAT is why your July electric bill was so high. It's not some conspiracy on the part of PG&E. It's the fact you live in a town with insane heat waves and you use the A/C. Install a thermostat like mine that tracks how often the A/C is on and maybe you'd realize this. Sometimes I think PG&E should buy a pallet of these thermostats (at <$40 each, it certainly wouldn't be too expensive for them) and install them at every house that complains about their summer electric bill. Maybe once these people realize just how often the A/C is on when they set it at 78F, they'd stop complaining that PG&E is overcharging them. They might even realize the costs of installing a more efficient A/C, getting the ducts sealed and insulated and getting the house insulated would be well worth it because it would keep the A/C from being on so often and they'd recoup the costs after a couple of Bakersfield summers.

We had this installed and didn't notice a jump at all.  But then again, we don't run our heater during the winter much.  And during the summer we don't leave the air on when we are not home.  Don't quite understand the thinking of anyone that leaves thier air on when they are not home.  True, it might be cooler when you come home, but I don't see how it is cheaper to leave it on running for 24 hours a day as opposed to 10-16 even if it is set at 84 degrees.  But then again, our house doesn't get much over 81 degrees during the summer when it is off.  I would look more at where you are wasting energy.  Needing to caulk windows, upgrade insulation.. Get your AC unit serviced.  I put in some weather stripping around our front door and I know it helped a lot.  I guess I will have to revisit it next month or so after the new smart meter gets installed.  Plus, with the meter I think you are getting a more accurate version of what you are actually using.  Insted of the lag that is from some dude coming by and reading your meter. 

PG$E don't get me started!  We run our AC at 80, We live in a small 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Its just me and my daughter here we have 2 TVs I only watch mine at night our light bulbs are all energy efficient, we wash and dry clothes twice a week after 7pm.  and our bill was $512.00  we have a smart meter.  Our daughter runs her washing machine and dryer more then us live in a much bigger house, AC is on constantly, its so cold you need a jacket at times and her kids never turn a light off. they have four TVs and her highest bill was $102.98 No smart meter.  If its not something wrong with the smart meters then PG$E are ripping people off! BTW our AC unit is brand new. our refrigerator is brand new and energy efficient.

Lana, how about the insulation and weather striping in both houses? And I'm not just talking attics, windows and doors here. Are your ducts as sealed and insulated as hers are (you'd be suprised how many people are cooling/heating their attics because of leaky ducts)? How many panes are in your windows compared to her windows? How does the natural shading of the houses by trees or the color of the roof compare between the two houses? There are way more factors that go into electrical usage than just the SEER rating of the A/C unit, the thermostat setting and how often one does laundry.

Again, I recommend getting a thermostat that tracks how often the A/C and heater units are turned on to maintain the thermostat setting. If you see that the unit is on quite frequently, that tells you that you're losing air somewhere. Then you can start checking for other problems. A thermal imaging scan can quickly show where the losses are occuring. If you don't want to pay for that, there's the old fashioned method of manually checking for leaks. In the end, I think you'll find there's some defect in the house that is running up your bill, not a conspiracy on the part of PG&E.

Oh, and since you brought up TVs, did you know that the energy usage for a TV can fluxuate wildly depending on size, manufacturer and type? When CNET tested HDTV power usage, they found the scale ranged from just over 90 watts for a 42" LCD to over 600 watts for a 58" plasma (reviews.cnet.com/green-tech/tv-consumption-chart/). Even if we just looked at 42" TVs on that list, LCDs ranged from 90 to 240 watts and plasmas ranged from 187 to 464 watts depending on manufacturer.

Media centers and computers are two big energy users that most people don't realize are energy guzzlers. On the TV side, you have these high usage plasma TVs that people seem to love so much. On the computer side, a gaming computer with a fancy graphics card, big monitor and all the bells and whistles could easily draw 300-500 watts when you're playing that 3D computer game. Even though the A/C is still going to run up the lion's share of the usage, our modern entertainment electronics can add up big time.

ALL good information today, I am gonna go talk to my spouse, and ask to get a PGE inspector over to show us areas where we can 'save' energy.

& Also look into the flat rate billing they offer, maybe that is the wrong term, but where they average out your annual usage and your bill is the same every month for the year, no surprises.

but, with that said ~ something is still up and not kosher...i will never back down from that stand point! LOL

Who is paying for the new and improved smart meters? Just another gouge in the consumers pocket. These meters will actually save PG&E money by not having to pay meter readers. I make my check out to Pigs Greed and Extortion...........They have never refused to deposit them.

How sad is this? I just read this on the Bakersfield CraigsList :

" I am selling my Compound Bow. It is set at 54 Pounds. Can be set from 50 to 60 pounds. Has 6 Easton Arrows. I need it gone ASAP. I have to pay my PG&E bill before it gets shut off. If you want more info or pics message me. "

Gold,

In my 58 years I have become skeptical of many things.

Buyer beware.

In my 58 years I have become skeptical of many things.

Except of course a 1000+ page healthcare "bill" written by the SEIU and Acorn....  No need to be skeptical about that...

Think you can keep the health care debate to one of the numerous blogs devoted to the subject Ron?

all PG and E did to garner more money from the monopoly on power they have was lower the baseline.  I now run through my baseline  within the first 4 days of the month.

 my usage this July was similiar to my usage last August...yet my July 2009 bill was over 300 dollars more.  great time to pull this crap...during the biggest recession/depression this country has seen

anyone remember PG and E donating 250K to legalize gay marriage, giving their executives tens of millions of dollars in bonuses, then FILING BANKRUPTCY?  it happened back in 2001

learnem, that is what i have been trying to say this entire feed, its the BASELINE change that kicked (most) PGE customers rear-end this last billing...but the 'teachers' on the feed go off on college class-length worthy pamphlets. (i understand hot outside = a/c in the "ON" position ... that isnt the gripe, nor was the smart meter installation, since we were one of the first housing developments to get one installed ...)  it was the change in baseline allowance, and as you said - when most of us are still trying to make ends meet in this economy!

PS - thanx tkozy,i am skeptical too, but hell ~ i am thinking of selling a kidney to pay my PGE this summer! LOL

In this economy, people aren't willing to pay more for an American made kidney when they can get a cheaper one from China.

I love my single payer electric utility.  I think they do a darn good job of delivering reliable electricity to my home.  I love the smart meters as I can see when I am using energy the most, and make smart choices that reduce my bill and those dangerous greenhouse gases.. My baseline is more than enough to handle my basic necessities.  Since I am a hardworking taxpayer, I turn the thermo to 90 when I leave at 5:30 and put it down to 80 when I get home at 6:30.  I hardly use any energy at all.

Gold, I understand the desire of quite a few people to upgrade to new larger homes. (not saying you did). I know of some people that moved from 1100 SF homes to 2600 SF homes. After their children had grown up. And moved on.

Not only did they encounter the 2006 prices. They are now stuck with the 2009 Electric bill.

I was not one of those movers and shakers. I actually moved down 100 sf in 1997. And glad I did. My electric bill hasn’t doubled in those 12 years.

But my Gasoline bill has increased 400%.

Something Mexico has no concept of..

Mexico,

How do you survive with ingrown foot in mouth disease. In 12 years mine and most others electric bill has only doubled. And I even consider that obnoxious. ( don't forget. In the absence of government regulation. the cost of Utilities skyrocketed in early 2000's and then returned to normal after government intervention)

Considering your thieves in the petro industry, I wonder who is at fault.

In the same period. Your favorite rapists. The petro industry has raised the cost of crude by 700% and gasoline 400% And diesel by 600%

I certainly hope that ingrown foot of yours tastes great covered in hypocrisy.

I love my single payer utility.  Sorry you don't like yours, Tkoz....

Goldilox, you need to express yourself better. When you said "it's the baseline increase", how were we to know you were complaining about how low the baseline is? Usually one does not equate the word "increase" with lowness. The rest of your comments were about dollar amounts and not usage, so you came across primarily as complaining about the dollar amount of your bill. Learnem was the first in this thread to clearly express his displeasure with the lowness of the baseline and to compare usage levels in addition to dollar amounts. I don't say this often, but Learnem had a well-formulated complaint when it comes to his usage and his bill. So instead of complaining about "teachers" lecturing you, perhaps you should express yourself more clearly in the future, because if your primary point was the baseline levels, that was NOT clear until you latched on to Learnem's comment. 

i knew you would learn-me-good !  thanks my new friend ! glad you got my back, and all others too! 

please let me know where i can sign-up for classes that are pre-approved before we are allowed to blog, i am new to this - so maybe i missed that info?

And I see you're deciding to take the "I don't need no edumacation" slant Goldilox. Not very novel, not very mature and not very productive either. How about you take this constructive criticism constructively instead of with an attitude? Keep in mind that we are readers, not mind readers. If you do not word yourself clearly, you will not be understood. If you don't mind being misunderstood, then please, by all means, continue on with that attitude. But if you actually want people to understand what you're writing, phrase your primary point so that it can be understood, just like Learnem did. Throwing around an attitude when no one understood you because you didn't write clearly isn't helping anyone.

You're doing fine, goldilox.  Don't worry about those that are easily confused and try to hide it with arrogance.

BTW, your energy bill will soon seem inconsequential when the government decides that you have used up your allotment of life saving medical treatment and engages you in end of life decision making.

Sounds like Dril and Ron are both on the "make all blogs about health care" boat. And Dril, just because you don't like me doesn't mean I don't have a point. Goldilox could not have been complaining about the low baseline levels as Learnem was with the phrase "baseline increases". Perhaps Goldilox was complaining about the increase in electric rates for each tier, which could be a valid complaint if clearly expressed. But since Goldilox was not clear, readers are left playing guessing games. If you're going to communicate effectively in the written word, you need to be clear so there are no guessing games. Learnem was clear. Goldilox.... not so much.

Shwaine said to stop quoting dollars and start quoting KW hours. Prior to 1st Smart Meter install -  average monthly usage less than 700 kw hours per month. June 08- 900. July 08 (Smart Meter installed) - KW hours - 2,267!  August - 2,006! September -  1,882! October - 1,182!   At the end of June 08 we also switched out all light bulbs to CFLs. We set our thermostat higher, used fans to stay cool, etc... To compare these with previous years - Sept. 07 we only used 682. October 399. This goes on. We called PG&E repeatedly. They said there was nothing wrong with the meter.  I agree. THey put it on so that they could gouge people and it was doing just that.  I have never had bills this high.

They recently put on our new Smart Meter 2.  We shall see. 

tweyant, you must be one of the unlucky ones to have had a failing meter before the replacement. I already covered this in my first comment. To recap, failing meters read low and any meter replacement would have seemed like a spike in usage because the old meter was basically giving you a discount by reading a lower usage than what was occuring. You can try complaining and see about getting a secondary metering device, but if the secondary metering device agrees with the new meter, you'll basically be told that your old meter was the one that was wrong.

Shwaine, our meter was obviously failing since we first moved into this house - who knows how many years ago. Our usage has stayed basically the same since we moved here. Hot summers - more usage. More moderate summers, less usage. THe only thing that changed was the smart meter installation.  I am glad to see the PG&E has someone on this site to make sure that we all know the 'facts' about these disasterous machines.

One of the things i have enjoyed about the Smart meter was being able to monitor my daily usage. We work hard at it. We got our new Smart Meter 2 on August 12(this month). That is the last time we have been able to monitor our usage. They don't put those readings on the internet for their customers on a daily basis. I wonder what they're hiding?

Let's be clear here. I am NOT a PG&E employee. I have had my issues with the dirty power SmartMeters, which you can find chronicled in my blogs from last year. In that process, I educated myself as much as any consumer can do about the SmartMeter program and meter issues in general. I also spoke with several of their engineers and one of their sales reps in resolving that issue. While researching how the SmartMeters transmit their data, I came across the studies that showed old meters could read very low and that most people who complained that the SmartMeters increased their usage actually had old meters which read low.

Notice the key word is LOW. That means the old meters would reflect some changes of the season as you observed, but they would be reading LOWER than the actual usage. Independent readings from a secondary metering device found that the SmartMeters were measuring the correct usage and it was the old meter that was incorrect. This is a little something called DATA and FACTS (and not the facts in quotation marks as you tried to imply, these are real and actual facts).

I tend to like facts better than people who come on and post comments trying to paint a something as a big corporate conspiracy against them. If that makes you label me as a PG&E employee or apologetic, then that's your problem. I'll continue to deal in the realm of real and actual facts, where logical explanations exist for many things. For example, you're probably not getting daily usage right now because the receivers for the new SmartMeters are different. That means new hardware and software has to be installed and tested, which takes time. It's not a conspiracy to deprive you of daily usage data, it's just a part of rolling out new technology. By the way, you could get your own daily usage data by going outside and looking at the meter until the roll-out of the new technology is complete.

About the only complaint on this thread so far that has any factual basis is Learnem's complaint about how low the baseline usage level is. Had anyone bothered to complain about the rates charged at each tier, that too would be a valid complaint (although something one should have complained about during the PUC public comments period before the PUC approved the rates). But all this "PG&E is out to get me" conspiracy nonsense here and on the TV news is getting annoying.

 I would LOVE to know how my bill can go up from $200 to $600 in one month also. We did not change our usage, we actually where not home 2 weeks out of the month, and we keep the air no cooler than 78 or so when we are home. I called PG&E and they kept saying this time last year, when all I wanted to address was one month. They stand by their meters, and I stand by there is something so wrong with those things. I have lived in Bakersfield for 18 yrs and have NEVER had a $600 energy bill. PG& E tells you to go read your meter and then say "see it's right" ha how do we know that? After about 20 min. of going round and round and talking to a brick wall I was told that after we use our base line witch is not even enough to run that basics let a long an air conditioner they can charge up to 300% over that.. WOW really is that legal? I hope others report PG&E to the Utilities Commission, I sure know I am going to. We have to stand in numbers with these big time corporations. When I called they had said they had not received any calls about the smart meter causing issues, really I know of several people that have called. I was also told that every thing I hear in the news and read in the newspaper I can't always believe. WOW really now, can't seem to believe what any one is telling me it seems.

PG$E is a rip off!  I called PG$E and ask why my freakin bill was so damn high,  she had me go read off the numbers to her and then told me I was using alot of electric as I was talking to her......The AC had been off for a few hours and no lights were on, everything that was plugged in was OFF!!   What was I using??   So do I have to just shut off the switch at the breaker box so I'm not using electric?   BS! I have double pane windows, The filters on AC are clean, weather stripping on all the doors, energy saving lights, 2 small TVs  I only do laundry twice a week after 7pm.  I know how to conserve energy.  wonder how much my bill would be if i didn't?

The smartmeter SUCKS!

My bill went from 250.00 to 650.00 this month, but ever since it was installed has gone up and we have made lots of changes since it was installed.  For example I use the cloths dryer a whole lot less, I mean I have gone as far as hanging 2 to 3 loads wash only 2 to 3 times a week, do less cooking and not to mention we DON'T even use the air conditioner, we use floor and ceiling fans and when it got too hot I sent the temp at 86--still hot!

We changed the light bulbs, we did install 2 energy effec window air conditioners, now I did check the meter and it did not spin faster after we installed these--so far so good and we have made lots of other changes to decrease our usage of electricity, but our bill still went higher.

I called PGE and talked to the rep  about the smartmeter, she said the meter had nothing to do with it, but could not be the problem since it was not for anything exect for their readings and all she could me was to go to the fuse box shut all down and turn 1 room on at a time to see what room was using the most--that was no help, my bill still went up, we have cut back on so many things and nothing helps--it just gets worse!!!

SO, HOW CAN THEY SAY THIS IS HELPING??

IF THEY REALLY WANTED TO HELP--THEY WOULD FIND A WAY TO HELP GET SOLAR PANELS TO EVERYONE--THIS WOUL HELP SAVE EVERYWHERE, NOT ONLY WILL IT HELP THE ENVIROMENT THEY CLAIM TO BE HELPING, BUT THE CUSTOMERS THAT CAN NOT AFFORD THESE HIGH ENERGY BILLS THAT KEEP INCREASING--HOW CAN THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT THE ENVIROMENT?

BUT, AGAIN iI KNOW ITS ALL IN THE INVESTORS POCKETS--OUT OF OURS AND IN THEIRS!!

To Lorie, the tiered rates were approved by the PUC several years ago. PG&E can't change their rates without the PUC approving it. PUC can't approve it without a public comment period. During a public comment period during, one could lodge a protest over the proposed tiered rates. Did you? You can still lodge a protest now, but it holds less weight than ones lodged during public comment periods.

To Lana and Delia, it sounds like there's something wrong with your house. Other people like myself, my parents, Lana's daughter and Btown have had normal bills with the SmartMeters. If the SmartMeters were the sole source of high bills, everyone would experience it. Since everyone is not experiencing high bills, that points to something in the house being a problem. Perhaps there is an electric hog plugged in somewhere or a fault in your wiring that is causing your meter to spin (this can particularly be an issue with any underground wiring you might have). Get your house checked out instead of complaining about your bill on a blog. PG&E will send someone out to do a basic free check if you ask for it or you can hire an electrician to do a more comprehensive check. It is especially important to have underground wiring checked as that can be an electrocution hazard if it is faulty and leaking electricity into the ground.

Amusing side story, I once saw a TV news story about a guy that thought his house was haunted due to high electric bills, strange tingling sensations in certain areas and lights turning on and off randomly. Turned out to be faults in the underground wiring. He's lucky that "haunting" only gave tingling sensations when he walked over the electrified ground, since he had very severe faults in his underground wiring according to the electrician.

My bill this month was $453.  My mom's was over $500 and my sister's was over $800.  We have all lived in Bakersfield for years.  I have lived in the same house for 14 years.  My energy usage has not changed. 

Yes, we have to run the air in the summer BUT none of us have ever had a bill even close to this ever!!!!! I don't know if it's the smart meter, or the way they use the baseline but this is wrong!!!! In the past  my summer bills have run around 200.00 but this is more than double any summer in Bakersfield ever. 

I called the CPUC to complain and the woman screamed at me that that was just the way it was.  I lived in a hot town and if I didn't like it I should move.  She did not take my info, she hung up on me.  I called back 4 different times to complain and not one person would take a complaint.  They all told me to get on the even pay program or find a way to reduce my usage.  I felt like I was talking to PG&E, what's the point of having the CPUC if they aren't going to do anything.  

I have called David Couch, Kevin Mc Carthy, 29 news etc etc and I don't feel like I am getting anywhere.  I googled PG&E rate hikes and found an article in the San Francisco paper where PG&E said that the average rate would go from $71 to $75 a month.  Well that isn't quite the case for us in the valley now is it?  There was another article that talked about PG&E having a huge increase in profits this last quarter.  Imagine that! 

I looked at my bills over the past year and my bill was between 50-65 dollars every month.  June was $111, July was $177 and August was $453.  There is something wrong with this.  I did not use anywhere near twice as much energy in August, but I was charged over twice as much. 

Deregulation was bad, this monopoly is bad and it is very frustrating to not have a voice (or feel like I am not being heard).  Utilities should not be able to make obscene profits!  We should have another choice in taking our business, but we don't.  So where do we go from here?  I do not believe that only 48 people called to complain in all of California.  I know I called along with my other family members and I can not believe that so few people are upset about this. 

For those that didn't bother to read their bill inserts this month, PG&E has proposed to lower its electric rates in 2010. The PUC is currently reviewing the new proposed rates.

There is nothing wrong with the house, Its PG$E and they don't want to help they just want their MONEY!  I called and ask for them to send someone out to do a basic check, They don't send them out for that.   Of course they don't!!   All I can do is bend over pay the bill and smile like i enjoy it! 

Lana, then hire an electrician to test the wiring and a HVAC technician to service the A/C and check the ducts for leaks. There's even companies in town that can do both services in one visit because they're licensed for both electrical and HVAC work. Get a Kill-A-Watt meter and wander around the house checking usage of all your electrical appliances. Get a thermostat that monitors how long the A/C is on. Do all the improvements Btown posted.

Be proactive. Do something. Don't just sit in front of the computer and complain and expect someone else to do it for you for free. Especially don't complain and expect your bill to be magically waived. Because if it were PG&E and ONLY PG&E, my bill would have not been $250, my parent's bill would not have been $150 and everyone else who has reported similar bills in this blog and other blogs also wouldn't exist. Since we do exist, it is not a PG&E conspiracy to overcharge everyone. It is your house. Do something about it beyond complaining.

Shwaine,  If it is my house and my mom's house and my sister's house and all the other people who are complaining.  WHY is it that in 14 years in the same house it is almost triple what it EVER has been in the history of living here and it just by coincidence all happened this month?  If it has NEVER happened in 14 years, for any of us, and we have run our air the same every summer. 

 I did not set the air below 85.  The two variables that are the same is that PG&E installed smart meters and they raised their rates.  I am not sure which one is the problem. 

You are fortunate that it did not happen to you, but get off of your high horse and stop telling people to be proactive and it's their fault.  Are you hearing what we are saying.......nothing changed in the house or the usage and the bills tripled. 

What about PG&E's own admittance that the smart meters will read neighbors houses or look back at the general usage when they are not getting a reading.....including when there is a blackout and no electricity is being used.  Isn't it convenient that it is so much higher and in their favor. Maybe they are rotating who they overcharge so it's not everyone at once. 

Maybe your bill will be doubled or tripled next month and people can tell you its all in your head and you need to watch your energy consumption.  By the way, I just had my air conditioning serviced in June so I was proactive.......I didn't get a insert in my bill because I pay on-line (doing my part to go green).  What about the fact that they are trying to get rates raised again.  They are petitioning this in Northern Cal according to the article I read.  If PG&E made record profits in the first quarter this year, I will be very interested to see how much profit they make this quarter.  **See this site dated 8/5/09 on how PG&E profits increased due to rate hikes http://www.marketwatch.com/...  **

Especially in this economy, it's one thing for your bill to go up by 50 or 100 dollars and quite another for it to double or triple with NO WARNING!!!  Do you understand how shocking it is for your bill to jump so much higher than it  EVER has?????  And then to find that it has happened to many people around you only to be patronized by you because yours did not go up?  Give me a break. 

Something stinks about this situation, and PG&E is laughing all the way to the bank.  You may not work for PG&E, but what is your affiliation with them, that you would be defending them so diligently. 

By the way, this IS the forum for us to complain.  That is what we were invited to do.  To voice our opinion on what happened to us.    Just because it did not happen to you YET, you are fortunate.....BUT don't belittle us when we are voicing our frustration!!!!! 

No utility company should ever be able to make that much profit period!  When it comes to utilities and water, they should make just enough to keep everything up and running.  They should not be able to make an obscene profit.  As a matter of fact, they should be non profit. 

Thank you beachkel.    Shwaine  It is PG$E and if you don't like reading my complaints about them then  the simplest solution I have for you is to just STOP reading my post!  There is NOTHING wrong with my house!  I never said I expected anything for free you are the one who posted that PG$E will come out and do a basic check for free.  They don't!   I don't expect to have my bill magically waived.  But I don't like being ripped off and then having someone tell me that its my fault!   Big freakin deal your bill didn't go up like a lot of other peoples....lucky you.   You know shwaine you could be wrong!  No one is as perfect as you want  everyone to believe you are.

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very well said Beach ...

good luck to you, for soon enough  you too will be beaten  down by the BLOG-Nazi ... beware ...

we had our house evaluated by a pro , and our bills went up and down like normal, UNTIL this last month ~ when the "silent" baseline THING went into affect (we too are "GREEN) and only receive a DUE NOW notice via e-mail ...

from $250ish to $525 - hhhmmmmm

i am already filling out pre-approval loan payment applications for the next invoice, i think i can get a  loan from my bank using my 5th wheel as equity, so i can afford the PGE bill ...

I was getting emails from Amber at 29 news, she is investigating complaints about the smart meters and bills that are outrageous.   her fathers for instance.   It must be his house too!   I guess every ones house screwed up this summer at the same time...WOW! 

NO not everyones

ONLY ours, shwaine's is FINE ... "it" is immune

You've got two options. You can sit at your computer and complain or you can do something about it. And the first step in doing something about it is making sure that your house is in order. Don't assume based on the past, because appliances age and exterior temperatures change. Don't think because you had the A/C set at some temperature that it ran the same amount of time, because as I pointed out before, July was so hot that my A/C usage, as proven by my thermostat, was twice the level it was in other months.

And especially don't go off on wild theories that it's sending your neighbor's usage in as your own, since you could just go out and read your own meter to know what it's measuring. While we're on the subject of reading meters, my bill never goes up unexpectedly because I go out and read my meter twice a month and adjust my usage appropriately. And just an FYI, when they say the new meters relay usage, they don't mean your meter is measuring your neighbor's usage or vis versa. They mean your meter can pass along messages from your neighbor's meter to PG&E. Imagine a classroom full of kids passing a note and never opening it. That's all your meter is doing, passing the note from your neighbor's meter off to another meter until it finally gets passed to PG&E. It's called ad-hoc networking and it's quite common among wireless devices to get past the issue of radio range.

All utilities will do estimated billing if they can't read a meter. Cal Water does it. Edison does it. It's standard practice and something they are legally allowed to do for several months at a time. I believe after three months, they have to get an actual meter read. They do have to adjust your bill if they overestimated, but otherwise estimated billing is perfectly legal and not something only PG&E does. CalWater seems the most prone to estimated billing I've found. PG&E is the least prone to this because they have the option to use a recorded reading from up to a few days before or a few days after the scheduled read. While we're on the subject of bills, the bill inserts are all on pge.com for anyone with paperless billing to read, should they bother to do so.

And for the love of readability, hit the enter key now and again. Paragraphs go a long way towards getting your point across by organizing your thoughts. Lack of paragraphs come off as rambling and it is also more difficult to read because it lacks whitespace cues. It's bad enough that people feel the need to rant and play the "PG&E is out to get me game", but at least be readable in the process.

Man, I can begin to understand why the Cal PUC employee reacted the way they did if this sort of rambling ranting is what they have to deal with day in and day out. I don't even work for the PUC or PG&E, yet by being logical, I've got all you bloggers attacking me and assuming I do. Must be pure hell for actual employees.

And Lana, PG&E used to offer free energy audits. I know Nancy said she had one, as did another blogger whose name escapes me. I didn't know they stopped doing so until you posted. So exsquuuuuezzzzzeee meeeee for not being aware they had discontinued a long-running program.

Why don't all of you "PG&E is out to get me" bloggers go to the city council and ask them to start a municipal utility district. If it truly isn't your houses, that would solve ALL of your problems. You'd just have to live with bigger government. But hey, what's a little more government if your power bill is less (until it isn't at least).

I have had outrageous bills. Crazy high, and I am now the "Power Nazi" in the house. And by the way, for all of you who get so worked up about a "nazi" reference, why not skewer Jerry Seinfeld who essentially desensitized an entire generation with his ongoing "soup nazi" character. Hypocrisy  abounds.

Shwaine, your so extremely Smart  I'm surprised you DIDN'T know that!    your excused!    As for doing anything about it, I'm sure it would be like talking to you!  No thank you!   Like I said in an earlier post.......All i can do is bend over and smile like I enjoy it!