I know that, at least in the New Orleans area, Entergy effed up and undercharged people for a year, then decided it was a smart idea to reconcile their screwup by hitting people with a $600 bill last month for a home that usually uses about $300 in electricity.
Do you have a source other than hearsay about the doubling? I find nothing in their rates (or rates published by watchdogs) that indicates a double payment. I only see places like Fox News style "some people have claimed..." stories.
The only actual stories with solid data say the increase is due to natural gas prices, which have not nearly doubled, so it'd be surprising that the end product doubled. And stories showing how unusual high heat waves have caused people to use more energy, which naturally results in a higher bill.
Also, that's completely different than inflation caused, and I doubt the higher bills would last long if that double monthly bill is true.
Also, if people were undercharged, then they owe the money. Basically they got a better deal by paying less early.
You can go to the New Orleans subreddit and find people who are complaining about their electric bills there. I never mentioned inflation because it's not really big on their list of complaints, and there's nothing about that group which would make me believe that they're lying.
I looked at some of those. I find plenty of cases where someone had a broken meter, was undercharged, then was charged to catch up. The electric company allows them to pay over time if needed in all cases.
I looked through New Orleans rates. They never doubled.
I find zero cases where the electric rates doubled, which is what the person here claimed.
As far as complaints, I can find people here complaining their rates doubled, when in fact they did not. Going to another place is not much different than here.
As far as I have found, no electric company doubled rates, contrary to lots of hearsay.
I've heard from friends in the Gainesville area (GRU) that their bills have been in the 800 - 1100 range!!! Before I moved in 2010, I had a almost 500 bill and even that was just insane. When I look at the population of that area, I ask, "how many of your customers can actually afford rates like that? That's like a mortgage payment!"
Just yesterday I was checking Project Sunroof [0] to get an idea about how much I can save(based on my location this app says I have 1,634 hours of usable sunlight per year) and I am seriously thinking about installing Solar Panels.
I'd love to know what Duke is going to do. I have a 1950s block home with less than 3 inches of insulation in the attic (Duke Energy efficiency audit put it at a charitable R-11) and original windows that I was told by the HVAC person "leak like a sieve". Electric bill this month may hit $400.
Original windows are likely the biggest offender. You could just replace the largest windows if budget is a concern or place plastic over the inside portion to create an “insulative” air barrier between the plastic sheet and the window. The plastic trick worked amazingly for me when renting an old farm house on a city plot. Looks ghetto ugly though.
There’s clear plastic shrink wrap which truly does become nearly invisible once you run a hair dryer over it. Last one I used was “Duck” brand and worked great. People would walk up to the windows and be surprised to hit the plastic that they didn’t see.
[0] https://cleanenergy.org/blog/fpls-holiday-surprise-810-milli...
[1] https://www.fpl.com/content/dam/fplgp/us/en/rates/pdf/res-ju...