Community concerns as Duke Energy customers seek answers for rising winter bills

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As temperatures drop, some Duke Energy customers have said they’ve seen a big jump in their power bills.

Devon Bartholomew is a Wilmington resident who saw her bill go up by nearly $60 in a month.

She made a post on the Wilmington Community Facebook page, expressing her concerns about the jump.

“I would like to learn how I can prevent future surprise, crazy high bills,” Bartholomew said. “Not just conserving electricity but like what can we do as a community to control the situation.”

A couple of the biggest questions Bartholomew and many others have are “why is my bill so high?” and “what are some of the fees on my bill?”

Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said the cold weather is the biggest reason why bills have gone up.

“Temperatures are milder, bills are gonna be lower,” Brooks said. “But as bills increase, we tend to look at the bill to try to see why is the increase happening and they saw these new things on the bill and that’s raised some questions certainly.”

Those new items are called rider fees.

They are not new charges added to your bill as they’ve always been there.

“The important thing is these are not new charges generally. They are charges that used to be part of a simplified bill format that we had. We’ve just broken those charges out and now you’re seeing them as line items on your bill. And that may look like a new charge even though it isn’t.”

Brooks said some rider fees cover fuel costs or the cost of having to comply with state policies about renewable energy.

He also said that rider adjustment fees can go up or down from month.

The best way to track increases in your bill is to compare one from the same month year over year.