Yukon Energy and ATCO Electric Yukon continue to provide monthly public updates on the work underway to address customer billing concerns related to estimated bills, account calculations, payment processing and billing timing.
We understand these issues have caused frustration and uncertainty for many Yukoners. We remain committed to providing accurate, timely and easy-to-understand bills while addressing individual customer concerns and the underlying system issues that have contributed to billing problems.
We continue to collect meter readings from homes and businesses across Yukon to ensure bills accurately reflect electricity usage.
When an actual meter read cannot be collected — for example, when a meter is blocked or inaccessible — we contact the customer directly by door hanger, email or phone to let them know.
Our Customer Service Representatives also continue to manually review every bill for accuracy before it is issued. Less than 3% of bills have required corrective action, and 99% of bills have been issued on time. When specific issues are identified, such as billing adjustments, refunds, or payment arrangement needs, affected customers are contacted directly by our Customer Service Representatives and supported through the resolution process.
Yukon Energy continues to work closely with ATCO Electric Yukon and our billing system provider to investigate known system issues, address their root causes and implement both interim corrective measures and longer-term solutions.
This work is making progress on several issues that directly affect customers, including:
Improving estimated bills: We are reviewing the logic used to calculate estimated bills when an actual meter read cannot be obtained. The goal is to ensure estimates better reflect seasonal changes in electricity use. This should result in more accurate estimates, smaller adjustments when the next actual meter read is collected, and less potential for unexpected high bills.
Increasing the use of actual meter reads: We are reviewing and adjusting system thresholds to allow more actual meter readings to be accepted and used for billing when it is significantly higher or lower than previous months. Our review has found that the current thresholds do not adequately account for the large seasonal changes in electricity use that can occur in the Yukon. Adjusting them should allow more bills to be based on actual meter reads rather than estimates.
Streamlining account review and controls: We are working to streamline the number and type of system flags generated each day that require review before bills can be issued. This will allow our team to focus more time on genuine billing anomalies and help bills reach customers more quickly.
Additional work is underway to review billing processes, system parameters, billing timelines and how information is displayed on customer bills — all with the goal of improving reliability, accuracy and clarity.
Senior leaders from ATCO Electric Yukon, Yukon Energy, and ATCO meet every two weeks to review progress on billing improvements, remove barriers, and ensure the work remains a top priority. These regular meetings help maintain accountability, monitor customer impacts, and confirm the teams have the resources and support needed to implement both immediate fixes and long-term solutions
Yukon Energy is adding a new Customer Service Representative to our team this month. This additional resource will help reduce wait times during periods of higher demand, provide more timely support to customers with billing questions, and give the broader team additional capacity to resolve billing issues and advance system improvements.
We recently visited Faro to meet directly with customers in the community, review bills and answer questions. Community visits like this are an important part of our efforts to better understand customers' experiences and provide hands-on support.
In January, the Yukon Utilities Board approved updated Terms and Conditions of Service, utility contributions for new customer connections, and fees for non-billing services such as connection and disconnection requests.
While new utility contribution levels approved by the Yukon Utilities Board are in effect, implementation of updated non-billing service fees remains on hold as we continue to focus on billing improvements. Customers will continue to be charged the lower fee levels established in 2011 for services such as connections, disconnections, and after-hours call-outs until further notice.
If you have questions about your account or bill, please contact our Customer Service team at billing@yec.yk.ca or (867) 993-5565.
Every inquiry is reviewed individually, and we remain committed to working directly with customers to understand and resolve their concerns.
We will continue to provide regular updates as we address billing system issues, improve billing processes and work toward a more accurate, timely and reliable billing experience for customers.
You can read our July update here.
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