$23,000 bill? It’s enough to cause heatstroke

The Eisenhower Drive man says his highest electricity bill was $140.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN — Even with temperatures dipping into single digits, $23,000 for two months’ electricity seems high for a two-bedroom condominium.

But that’s what Dr. Robert Roerich’s Ohio Edison November and December bills totaled. He got them both the same day. The one for November to December hit $11,522.10 and for December to January, it reached $11,527.73.

“I knew I couldn’t have used that much electricity,” the Eisenhower Drive man said. “My highest bill was $140.”

He called Ohio Edison and says a customer service representative told him that the computer read as if he had used so much electricity that the meter rolled back to zero and started measuring again.

His most current meter reading shows he used 60,042 kilowatt hours of electricity. The latest bill indicates 59,525 kilowatt hours. According to what the representative told him, the computer read like the meter passed 99,999 and began measuring over again.

“There’s was no way I could use that much electricity,” Dr. Roerich said.

He lives on the third floor and gets heat from the apartments below him. Until this latest cold spell, the temperature inside his home stayed between 65 degrees and 68 degrees without turning on the heat.

Dr. Roerich searched the Internet and found that electricity meters don’t generally go in reverse unless energy is produced such as with solar panels. He wasn’t producing energy.

Through his Internet research, Dr. Roerich, a psychiatrist, found people in Dallas and in England who experienced similar problems.

Further adding to his confusion, his online account dates only to October and lists his account balance at zero.

Paul Harkey, area manager for Ohio Edison in Mahoning County, said the reading and high bills were likely the result of a glitch. It should have been flagged before the bills were sent, he said.

Harkey said that the problem could be remedied over the phone with a customer service representative if the doctor’s bill history shows that his recent bills are way out of whack.

“This will be corrected,” Harkey said.