Electricity and natural gas retailers that fail to resolve customer billing complaints will face fines for the first time, under a new bill introduced in the Alberta legislature Thursday.
Bill 13, An Act to Secure Alberta’s Electricity Future, gives the Alberta Utilities Commission the power to impose penalties of up to $10,000 a day per infraction.
The government is proposing the changes to resolve complaints more quickly.
Up to now, matters could only be resolved in a formal hearing, a costly process that could take several years. Under Bill 13, penalties could be levied like speeding tickets.
The AUC could then allocate some of the proceeds back to the customer.
“The hope is it makes companies pay attention to things and responsible from their end,” said Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd.
“But it also gives consumers an avenue to recoup those few dollars or make things right.”
Alberta’s current rules only penalize retailers if they fail to provide reliable electricity or gas, or if they breach rules set by the Alberta Electric System Operator.
The legislation was silent when it came to customer service complaints.
The issue has come to a head over the past five years.
Between 2014 and 2016, the Alberta government received 13,000 calls about billing problems, many about Direct Energy.
In 2017, the government received 2,000 emails just about billing errors.
A number of Direct Energy customers contacted CBC with their stories after unsuccessfully trying to resolve their complaints with the company, whose problems coincided with a switch to a new billings system in 2014.
One man received 16 gas bills in one day. A woman who never set up an account with Direct Energy received energy bills for a home she hadn’t lived in since 2010.
A Calgary university student was billed for the gas used by her entire apartment building, not just her suite.
Bill 13 also contains legislation to transition Alberta from the existing deregulated energy-only system introduced 20 years ago to what’s known as a capacity market.
Those changes were introduced in November 2016.