“It’s bothering me,” says homeowner Bob MacKenzie, after a situation that would make everyone turn their heads. On February 10, a kitchen fire forced MacKenzie and his family to flee their home in Salmon River, NS They have not returned since. He says that when firefighters arrived that day, Nova Scotia Power employees did the same to unplug the power supply for safety. “Nova Scotia Power showed up, pulled the meter, put the meter down there, since then the meter has been taken.” By Tuesday, MacKenzie said the meter was sitting on the ground next to his house. The power has not been reconnected as it waits for the restoration work to be completed through insurance. He believes that the utility may have come to pick up the meter, but he is not sure. However, he had already sent a photo of the meter on the ground to Nova Scotia Power after receiving an electricity bill for $ 1,018.32 earlier this week. According to his account statement, the billing period began on February 7, three days before the fire. The account states that the amount is an estimate due to “no access”. “They did not even know that the electricity meter was off, so I do not understand how it could have happened or how I could have gotten a bill. They show 6,146 kilowatt hours used, a previous meter reading, a new meter reading “. MacKenzie called Nova Scotia Power and said the account was being reversed and the utility was “very apologetic”. However, he still has many questions about where he got his numbers. “How did they calculate that I used 6,146 kilowatt hours? Because last April was 6,500 kilowatt hours. “I just do not know where they find their calculations.” Nova Scotia Power could not give anyone an answer to these questions in an interview. Instead, the company sent a written statement to senior communications consultant Jacqueline Foster. “When we respond to an emergency, such as a fire in a home, our priority is always to ensure the safety of our customers and employees,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, during the emergency, an administrative error occurred which resulted in the customer being charged in error. “Once we were informed of this, we took immediate action to correct it and thank the customer who took it into account.” His questions went unanswered, MacKenzie says he has had a lot of reactions since posting about his experience on Facebook. He now says he worries about how many people receive and pay estimates based on estimates – instead of actual use – without ever noticing. He wants to know how often the company calculates bills, especially since it started upgrading 500,000 customers across the province to smart meters in 2019. “This is what worries me to move on, it’s my account, but my neighbor’s account, everyone else’s account, are they all made up?” As for the smart meter – MacKenzie is done with it. As soon as he could return home, he asked the utility to install an analog meter in the hope of avoiding further billing errors, although returning to a traditional meter would cost him a fee.
