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PGW customers see ‘outrageous’ heating bills | Business Weekly

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Jeannine Baldomero, like a lot of PGW customers, was hit recently with a huge bill this month. 72% of her May bill for her 1,000 square foot apartment was the weather normalization charge. She was photographed in her Spring Garden neighborhood June 22, 2022.
Jeannine Baldomero, like a lot of PGW customers, was hit recently with a huge bill this month. 72% of her May bill for her 1,000 square foot apartment was the weather normalization charge. She was photographed in her Spring Garden neighborhood June 22, 2022.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

Some Philadelphia Gas Works customers were shocked to open their most recent bills to find they owed as much as five times more than they’re used to. The reason? A “weather normalization adjustment” made by the utility to adjust its bills up or down between October and May when the actual weather departs significantly from normal weather patterns.

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How ‘weather normalization’ changes hit PGW customers’ bank accounts

Philadelphia Gas Works told customers the additional charges they saw on their most recent bills — a product of the utility’s “weather normalization adjustment” formula — were normal, thanks to May’s warmer temperatures. The charge allows PGW to make up for the money it otherwise would have lost, as consumers use less gas for heating when the seasons begin to change. For some customers, the amount they owed was made up almost entirely of the “normalization” charge, leaving many to ask what can they do to fight what they called an “outrageous” cost passed on to consumers.

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