DALLAS — If record cold has caused high electric bills, owners of a parking lot in the 5400 block of Gaston wonder what caused a spike in their electricity usage.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think a light pole gets cold," said Joanne Fay, treasurer of the non-profit Aldredge House.
Around the corner from the prestigious home on Swiss Avenue is its small overflow parking lot. It has one utility pole and two security lights.
For more than a year, the non-profit that owns the lot has paid about $15 a month for electricity, Fay said.
In December, the bill jumped to almost $70.
And in January it increased to $117 dollars not long after Oncor installed a smart meter.
Fay said she thinks the amount billed is for more electricity than the parking lot has used recently.
"That is pretty phenomenal," Fay said. "When people were complaining about their utility bill being double, ours was more than a year. We've already paid more than we do in a year."
At News 8's request, Oncor checked on the lot's usage history and discovered that two years ago the non-profit routinely used almost the same amount of electricity, and that was with its mechanical meter.
Oncor said the larger usage and resulting bill must be because the non-profit began using the parking lot's lights more. The $15 bill the non-profit had received for most of 2009 is a base commercial charge for zero usage, Oncor said, when the lights clearly were not on.
The parking lot's February charges, Oncor said, were for 121 kilowatt hours - one of the lowest usage amounts it has logged in more than two years - and that was with its new smart meter.
Three days into Oncor's side-by-side meter testing in Bell County and North Oak Cliff, new concerns have arisen.
The utility is not testing smart meters against the actual old meters of skeptics that have volunteered. Most of the original meters have been recycled, Oncor said.
In their place are new mechanical ones, and critics complain that's an inaccurate comparison.
"The dial meter that they took out, that's the one that gave me my usage for the past three years. That's an accurate test, I think," explained Ree Wattner, founder of Smart Utility Reform Citizens.
Oncor said it is open to adjusting the test in an effort to settle questions and strengthen confidence.
The Aldredge House is considering disconnecting the two lights in its overflow parking lot, Fay added.
The Texas Public Utility Commission said it's close to settling on an independent firm to examine smart meters and their software.
But what has not been tested — and likely won't be — are the old mechanical meters that so many electric users now miss.
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com
