Tag: Potomac Edison

Mon Power, Potomac Edison Work to Restore Electricity

Mon Power, a FirstEnergy Corporation utility, continues to try to restore power to customers in West Virginia following the summer storm that downed trees and wires in the region beginning last night.

Mon Power spokesmen, Todd Meyers says about 71,000 West Virginia customers lost power during the storm. Meyers says as of 3:00 this afternoon only 24,000 are still without power.

The company says customers lost power as the summer storm downed trees and wires. Meyers says restoring service to all Mon Power customers is expected to take several days. He expects 95% should have power by Friday night.

Mon Power serves much of north central West Virginia, and of those areas, the hardest hit included Parkersburg, Clarksburg-Bridgeport, and Lewis and Preston counties.

Scott Surgeoner, a spokesman for Potomac Edison, which is a sister company to Mon Power covering Berkeley, Morgan and Jefferson counties says just over four thousand in those counties are still without power, and he does not expect for those counties to be fully restored until Saturday.

Surgeoner says Hedgesville, Martinsburg and Berkeley Springs were hit the hardest by the storm.

PSC Orders Power Companies to Stop Estimating Bills

The state Public Service Commission has ordered Mon Power and Potomac Edison to implement monthly meter readings and billings following customer complaints.

The PSC released an order Wednesday in an investigation into the billing, meter reading and customer service practices of the FirstEnergy subsidiaries.
 
Under the order, the companies must implement monthly meter readings and billings as quickly as possible, but no later than July 1, 2015.
 
It also requires the companies to maintain adequate staff to perform the readings and to submit monthly reports to the commission through December 2015.
 
Citizens’ groups said customers complained about receiving multiple and contradictory bills in the same month, among other issues.
 
Mon Power and Potomac Edison serve about 520,000 customers in 37 West Virginia counties.
 

Mon Power, Potomac Edison Seek Rate Hike in W.Va.

  Mon Power and Potomac Edison are asking West Virginia regulators to increase the rates it charges its customers.
 
The FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiaries said they submitted the request to the Public Service Commission for the $96 million rate increase on Wednesday.

The request was filed to move the costs currently being collected for the Harrison generation transaction to its permanent rates. The filing also includes recovery of costs associated with storm repairs from the 2012 derecho and Hurricane Sandy, along with operating costs at power stations.
 
If the request is approved, the monthly bill for a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours would be about $106.79.
 
Mon Power serves about 385,000 customers in 34 West Virginia counties and Potomac Edison serves about 135,000 customers in the state’s Eastern Panhandle.
 

Utlity Plans Aim to Reduce Outages During Storms

West Virginia utility regulators have approved utility vegetation-management plans aimed at reducing power failures during destructive storms.

The plans announced Monday are for Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. The plans are part of a Public Service Commission of West Virginia directive in January 2013 requiring electric companies operating in the state to outline vegetation trimming programs for distribution and transmission lines.
 
The PSC says the plans are intended to increase electric service reliability during storms such as the derecho in 2010 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
 
Those weather events left hundreds of thousands of West Virginians without power, resulting in millions of dollars in damage and spoiled food, not to mention customer inconvenience.
 
Mon Power and Potomac Edison serve 523,000 customers in 27 West Virginia counties.
 

Senator Calls on PSC to End Electric Bill Estimates

Senate Majority Leader John Unger called for a change Thursday in the way a First Energy subsidiary is billing its customers.

Unger requested the state Public Service Commission order Potomac Edison to stop estimating electric bills for customers. Instead, he said the company should be reading the meters every month.

Complaints from Potomac Edison customers started rolling in last fall when PSC Commissioners held hearings in North Central and Eastern West Virginia. Customers complained of receiving estimated bills much higher than normal.

Unger also claimed the company is reporting missed or underpaid bills to credit bureaus, harming customers’ credit ratings.

Spokesman for First Energy Todd Meyers said both of their subsidiaries, Potomac Edison and Mon Power, are cooperating with the PSC on the investigation into their estimation practices.

He said the company is providing monthly metrics to the commission to track their progress on improving the system.

Meyers also said the company does not share any credit information on current or active customers.
 

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