Dozens of Central Maine Power customers took to social media Thursday to express their confusion, and in some cases, distrust, in the results of the audit in to the power company's metering and billing practices.
Jim Smith said his bills doubled year over year from 2017 to 2018, but said he hasn't changed anything in his home that would affect electricity use.
Still, usage rates from CMP showed 30 to 40 percent increases.
"What I see are bills that are increasing that I don't understand," said Smith. "Our usage hasn't gone up. At least we don't think it has."
Smith also said that he was aware of rate hikes, but that the small percentage increase did not add up to the amount reflected in his bills.
"They tell you it's going to up percentage-wise that in our case from a year prior would have been maybe 15 or 20 dollars a month increase, but yet our bill doubled," said Smith.
Central Maine Power is preparing customers for another rate hike. The Maine Public Utilities Commission approved the 14 percent hike earlier this year. The average homeowner will see about an eight percent hike.
"We are actually sending customers letters starting next week," said Catharine Hartnett, a CMP spokesperson.
While the audit by the PUC's independent consulting firm found minimal errors in metering and billing function, it noted the company's implementation was poor.
"We've learned our lesson from that. We've hired new people. We've intensified new training. We've brought on new management oversight, and these are all important steps in regaining customer trust," said Hartnett.
She said some customers found they were in fact using more electricity than they realized.
"Appliances that are used to combat the cold and make it warmer draw an awful lot of electricity. People with things like heat pumps and heating tape are saving on their oil bills, but when it's that cold, it's really ill-advised to use those too heavily, so the usage does go up," said Hartnett.
That does not answer questions from customers such as Smith, who do not believe their home is using an extra electricity.
"It's disconcerting to think that those bills would be that much higher over a one year time period even with the cold December and January we had," said Smith. "It's not the first time we've had cold Decembers and Januarys."