Meter mixup: B.C. woman’s power bill swapped with neighbours for over a decade

A Victoria, B.C., woman says she wants compensation after discovering BC Hydro appears to have mixed her meter up with her neighbours for over a decade.

Liz Bicknell installed a heat pump in 2011 hoping to cut her power bills while helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It wasn’t until last fall that neighbours she shares a duplex with discovered the issue and alerted her.

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“The sad thing is I have had zero benefit from that because my neighbours have been benefitting from it simply because of Hydro’s negligence,” she said.

“Hydro crossed the meters and I didn’t know about that until my neighbours told me.”

Bicknell said she alerted BC Hydro but that the Crown corporation was dismissive of her case until she installed solar panels which proved the matter.

“That’s how Hydro was alerted to the issue,” she said. “They could see that the panels were feeding to the grid as they are designed to, but they are not feeding to my meter.”

Bicknell estimates she’s invested $32,000 in upgrading her home with the green power infrastructure, but hasn’t seen any savings.

She said she’s willing to settle with BC Hydro for $24,750.

BC Hydro, meanwhile, has credited her for about $5,000 for the 12 years of overbilling.

The Crown corporation said the credit reflects how much Bicknell would have saved if the meters were correctly installed.

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“We are really, really sorry that this has happened — and we are going to take this away as a lesson learned to make sure that we improve our process so that it doesn’t happen again in the future,” spokesperson Mora Scott said.

Scott added that meter mixups like this are extremely rare.

Bicknell, meanwhile, is unsatisfied.

“You have this great big corporation, this great big entity. You have me, a senior, dealing with something like this. And their attitude quite honestly has been very nonchalant,” she said.

She’s warning other customers to make sure their meters are properly connected, and to always bring a skeptical eye to their bills.

As for BC Hydro, she said she’s not ruling out legal action.

“I hope they do the right thing,” she said. “And we will see what the courts decide.”