San Diego Gas & Electric has filed a request with the California Public Utilities Commission to end the practice of high-usage charges after thousands of customers received high electric bills over the summer.
Cate Helm of Chula Vista told NBC 7 that an average monthly bill was between $60 and $90. In the middle of last summer, her monthly bill was $455.
"I thought, ‘Maybe there was a mistake,’" Helm said to us in October. "Then once I called the company and they explained that everything was correct, I was pretty much outraged."
More than 105,000 customers were impacted by the high-usage charge, SDG&E officials said.
Customers who used more than 400 percent of their baseline allowance were charged for high-usage under a mandate by the state of California.
When the so-called “super-user” surcharge was instituted, the CPUC said it would affect fewer than 10 percent of utility customers.
The idea was to penalize customers who are trying using much more electricity than what is necessary and avoid energy waste.
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NBC 7 reached out to the CPUC media team to get reaction to the motion but did not receive a response.
