(NEWS CENTER Maine) - We get messages almost daily from viewers who are baffled by their CMP bills.
NEWS CENTER Maine has looked into raising rates from the wind storm, customers who were charged twice, and increasing fees. Once those factors were ruled out, customers still had a lot of questions about their energy bill.
CMP representatives have told us repeatedly that it's normal for energy usage to spike in the winter - but that's not sitting well with customers.
So if you've gotten a bigger bill and you still aren't sure why – here’s one more tool: The Energy Manager on CMP’s website.
It’s a tool that allows you to log into your account and see your exact energy usage hour-by-hour. The most recent information you can see is from two days prior to when you check the website.
You can use this tool to compare your daily activity to your energy usage, and to see if it matches up.
Aimee Turner, the Program and Promotion specialist at NEWS CENTER Maine, has been a CMP customer for more than 20 years and regularly uses the Energy Manager to track her usage. She calls herself an energy “miser,” and makes an effort to keep her usage low. She says with the exception of a glitch one time, the Energy Manager has tracked her usage perfectly. She was even able to show us the exact times she did laundry at her house.
A lot of people who have contacted us say there is no way they have used the amount of electricity reflected in their expensive bills. You should be able to compare your daily household activities to a direct reading from your Smart Meter on the Energy Manager site.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the Maine Public Utilities Commission is looking into possible reasons for expensive bills - beyond increased usage.
If you try the tool and still feel like your CMP bill isn't right, feel free to contact us at askNOW@NEWSCENTERmaine.com and - as always - we'll look into it.
