PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) - For the first time officials at Central Maine Power are responding publicly to widespread complaints by customers about unusually higher bills.
Friday morning, three top officials with the utility fielded questions from reporters around the state through a conference call.
CMP’s President and CEO, Doug Herling, says CMP has received nearly 1,600 complaints from customers about higher bills. He says so far the company has investigated two-thirds of them and has found nothing on the company’s end that would lead to inaccurate bills. He said an 18 percent increase in the price of the standard offer and increased usage on behalf of the customers are to blame in the cases they’ve investigated.
"We have not discovered anything that drives our system to be changing or increasing artificially the usage that the customers see on their bills," Herling said.
He went on to say, "If we do find something, we will make that right with the customer. We will correct any issues that we found."
Herling says the company is currently doing an audit of its billing system, has added a team to review all customer complaints and has added staff to its call center.
He says CMP welcomes an independent probe now underway by the Maine Public Utilities Commission and will cooperate fully with it.
"We are confident of what it will show and hopefully it will give customers a sense of confidence that our systems are working," he said.
On a Facebook page called CMP Ratepayers Unite, customers reacted angrily. Vicky Harvey Johnson posted, "They are saying we ALL are making the same mistakes? NO we are not...I have brand new energy efficient appliances..ALL of them."
Woody Cutter posted, “How is it that my usage has doubled with the same devices as the previous year? Something is rotten in the state of Maine!”