Are Your Gas Bills Unusually High, Rancho Santa Margarita? Here's Why

New electronic gas meters are causing a rash of people complaining about higher bills to heat and cook, it was reported.

The Southern California Gas Company acknowledged that its new smart meters may be behind the higher bills, but only because billing periods were longer than usual during the switchover, The Orange County Register reports.

Cold weather and corresponding increased natural gas consumption was also happening at the same time the smart meters were rolled out, said Gas Company spokesman Javier Mendoza.

About 500 consumer complaints have been filed to the California Public Utilities Commission in January, a tenfold increase over the same period last year. About 140,000 smart meters have been installed out of about six million Gas Company customers.

Impacted customers were getting bills with billing periods of 35 to 49 days compared to the typical 29-32 day cycle, the paper reported.

He said the gas company is working to reconcile the bill issue.

The new meters were designed upload usage data via radio directly to the gas company, and gradually eliminate the need for human meter readers.

About 220,000 Orange County customers of 930,000 still have old meters, according to the gas company.

City News Service