Electrical Meter Failure

I don't think your electric meter has failed - the automatic reading system has failed.

B&V will get its part done in a timely way no doubt. But as I read it, WAPA will then have to check individual meters to see if they are communicating with the system.

But maybe some meters will come online once B&V gets the system up and running again??  

All pretty vague. 

http://www.viwapa.vi/news-information/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/05/08/governing-board-approval-paves-way-for-completion-of-ami-restoration-fully-functional-automated-system-will-allow-wapa-to-ensure-accurate-and-timely-billing

I’m just hoping my meter is storing an accurate record of my usage for the last several months. I should get an accurate reimbursement for my overpayments if that’s the case. Otherwise, I fear I may get ”WAPAerd”

Digital electric meters don't reset - but you may want to keep track by noting the reading for each month the bill is estimated.

Chances are you will get a credit for your overpayments on future bills. You know - like that $250 coronavirus credit you'll be getting on your May WAPA bill. 

With hurricane season soon approaching, the number of outages WAPA experiences, thus us, I feel the money would be better spent and jobs for locals to go back to having real people read real meters. 

We've ALL had issues with overbilling and "estimated" bills!

We're not getting that money back.

A house can sit empty with the breakers turned off and you still get bills equivalent to full occupancy, plus!

You can't even get customer service on the phone 85% of the time.

IMO, the amount of money that WAPA has bilked, wasted, mismanaged, lost, stolen over the decades could've built a better plant and services.

There was the opportunity to sell WAPA to Southern Energy. VI Senators blew that off!

 "WE DON NEED OUTSIDERS TELLING WE HOW TO RUN TING DEM!"

Just out of curiosity, if there's no power there should be no reading?

If there are power surges, as we all know there are, does that speed up and effect the digital meters?

I just finished putting in a solar system, like a week ago, it will be interesting to see if my bill goes down given the estimated billing.  Now there's a scary thought ?

Posted by: @Alana33

With hurricane season soon approaching, the number of outages WAPA experiences, thus us, I feel the money would be better spent and jobs for locals to go back to having real people read real meters. 

We've ALL had issues with overbilling and "estimated" bills!

We're not getting that money back.

A house can sit empty with the breakers turned off and you still get bills equivalent to full occupancy, plus!

You can't even get customer service on the phone 85% of the time.

IMO, the amount of money that WAPA has bilked, wasted, mismanaged, lost, stolen over the decades could've built a better plant and services.

There was the opportunity to sell WAPA to Southern Energy. VI Senators blew that off!

 "WE DON NEED OUTSIDERS TELLING WE HOW TO RUN TING DEM!"

Just out of curiosity, if there's no power there should be no reading?

If there are power surges, as we all know there are, does that speed up and effect the digital meters?

 

 

 

As long as you have a working WAPA meter attached to your house, you'll continue to accumulate some fees and charges. You still have power - you've just turned off the breakers. 

I don't think voltage surges would affect your electronic meter.

If you're concerned, start reading your meter periodically. Take monthly pics of your meter reading and then compare them. I know you're not on STT all the time but maybe a tenant could do that and send the pics to you.

Posted by: @jaldeborgh

I just finished putting in a solar system, like a week ago, it will be interesting to see if my bill goes down given the estimated billing.  Now there's a scary thought ?

Houses with net metering have different meters since we're selling energy to the grid.

We've not experienced meter issues or estimated billing with ours - and we've been solar since 2013.

WAPA settles up with us once a year - taking all the extra power credits we haven't used and setting our credits to zero again. We've never owed WAPA any money - but we have first generation net metering.

Within the year, construction will be done on my home. Once I’ve got my CO, I’m cutting off WAPA completely and going off-grid. WAPA has never reduced prices and never will. Service still drops out, power surges are still happening. I see no benefit to remaining connected.

With solar, it’s like paying 5 years of WAPA bills all at once. In ten years I’ll upgrade my solar system and still be well ahead.

@gators_mom: I asked my installer, Mike Bruno, and he explained the following. “When the net metering gets its final approval, then WAPA puts in a bidirectional meter. Until then, we have the system set for self consumption”.

It looks like I’m in some middle ground for the moment.  I don’t believe I’ve used any power from WAPA since the system was commissioned just over a week ago.  They installed 32 panels (9.92kW) along with an 8 kW hybrid inverter and 18.5kW of battery storage.  The battery sits at 100% for several hours everyday so I should be sending a fair amount of power to the grid once the net metering is approved.

I’m very pleased with the decision to put the system in as well as the installation.

Posted by: @jaldeborgh

@gators_mom: I asked my installer, Mike Bruno, and he explained the following. “When the net metering gets its final approval, then WAPA puts in a bidirectional meter. Until then, we have the system set for self consumption”.

It looks like I’m in some middle ground for the moment.  I don’t believe I’ve used any power from WAPA since the system was commissioned just over a week ago.  They installed 32 panels (9.92kW) along with an 8 kW hybrid inverter and 18.5kW of battery storage.  The battery sits at 100% for several hours everyday so I should be sending a fair amount of power to the grid once the net metering is approved.

I’m very pleased with the decision to put the system in as well as the installation.

Takes WAPA 2-3 months to show up. In the meantime they pocket your excess energy production. 

Having Mike Bruno install my solar panels and system was probably the best investment I've ever made.

We're on the old 1:1 net metering program which is probably the most generous in all the US.

We've installed A/C in the house to burn off some of the excess we produce every month.

I have only positive things to say about our experience with Mike Bruno.  The system he recommended seems well matched to our needs and is balanced.  We are currently generating about 35kW a day and consuming about 30kW to 33kW.  The SOC on the battery typically hits a low of roughly 18% during the night but is back at 100% by about 11:00am.  We're now running the A/C all the time (set at 82 degrees) to keep the humidity down, we don't do this when the humidity is lower.

The bottomline is the system design fits the house well and the installation was right on time and exactly on budget.  Plus, Mike was always easy to communicate with, very responsive.

I got a $8,529.13 WAPA bill for 1 months service...last week for 4/30 to 6/02 service period.

Isn't that special!

it'll take them months to rectify.

Is that including the $250 credit? ? 

Is the meter reading on your bill reasonable, close to what your meter shows?  If not, send WAPA a picture of your meter reading.

@Alana33

daaaaammn!!!! that sucks!!!!! Is the house occupied by tenants? Is someone stealing power from you?

Any way to find out? 

Called WAPA. Actually got thru 1st time and spoke with Customer Service to report problem bill. Apparently it's a drawn out process to correct. They'll eventually send a tech, who'll make a report which gets passed on thru a few other depts. before the bill gets corrected.

This can take up to 3 months!

Meanwhile, I continue to pay what my bill normally would be until eventual resolution.

I have picture of meter reading. 

The $250 credit was on prior billing.

Ms. Cerey from WAPA called me yesterday with update.
They had tech check meter and found the bill reading incorrect. It has to now wend it's way thru various depts. She said she'd be in touch as things move forward. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the call!

Geez, bureaucracy just to fix a bad meter reading.  Should be simple standard procedure.  No wonder our rates are so high.

Posted by: @Alana33

I got a $8,529.13 WAPA bill for 1 months service...last week for 4/30 to 6/02 service period.

Isn't that special!

it'll take them months to rectify.

That’s about $100K per year. You must be growing some indoor herb? ?

Just received two bills totaling $3000 for electric  on my vacant uninhabitable house.  The bill was roughly $20 just to keep power on.  All the breakers are off and definitely no one stealing the power as I live next door and see everything.  How is this possible?  Calling WAPA but from the experience I had just trying to connect service I’m expecting the worst.  Took 3 full days just to do that.

@mikeyotto 

I received a ~$5000 phantom WAPA bill for my business about two years ago.

We called them immediately to contest it and they did say it was erroneous and to not pay it. The CSR said they have hundreds of erroneous bills to sort through and that they'd "eventually" get it settled.

I check back with them from time to time and still say the same thing.

I'm moving from my current location soon and will no longer be needing WAPA (thank God).

I wonder how "erroneous" the $5000 bill will be when it comes time to give me my huge deposit back.

I'm sure they'll try to rip me off.