Understanding Your Recent Yukon Energy Bills

Yukon Energy would like to thank our customers for their continued support. We know the past few months have been frustrating for many due to billing issues, and we truly appreciate your patience as we work through them.  Recently, some customers received higher-than-expected bills. We understand this may have come as a surprise, and if that’s the case for you, please know that we hear your concerns — and we’re here to help. We’ve spoken with many of you and know there are questions, so we’ve outlined some key information below.  Many recent bills reflect a true-up after a period of estimated billing. What this means is that for the past few months, bills were based on estimated electricity use, as we were without a meter reader in Dawson City and Mayo. Now that we have hired a field service representative and have been able to take an actual meter reading, your bill is being adjusted to reflect the energy you actually used.  Why Did This Happen?  We rely on estimated bills when weather or road conditions prevent our meter reader from reading your bill, when access to the meter is blocked or when we have staff shortages. It’s not uncommon for electricity bills to be estimated during the winter. Estimates are calculated based on an average of how much electricity your home or business used over the last year.   Estimates are then “trued up” the next time your meter is physically read. This means the billing system compares the amount of electricity your home or business actually used over a period of time (i.e., between October and February) vs. the amount of electricity the system estimated you used over the same time period.   This results in “a corrected bill” which many people would have received in recent months. The bill shows how much electricity was used during each billing cycle, and either a credit (if your estimates were higher than your actual usage and you paid too much) or, in some cases, a higher bill if more electricity was used than estimated and there is an amount left owing.   Each time this happens, one of our customer service representatives manually reviews your bill before it’s sent to you to make sure rates, riders and credits are correctly applied to your bill for each month your meter was estimated.  And if that wasn’t enough, April is also the time that accounts on a budget plan were settled.  Do you have your account set up so that you pay the same amount each month no matter how much electricity you’ve used? If so, you’re one of our budget plan customers.  April is the month when accounts on a budget payment plan get settled each year. This is when Yukon Energy compares the actual cost of the electricity you used over the past plan year (i.e., May to April) to the total amount of your budget payments during that time.   As a result, payment plan customers receive a bill that shows either a credit if they’ve overpaid (i.e., payments over the year were more than the cost of the electricity used), or a balance owing if they’ve used more electricity than they paid for throughout the year.  What We’re Doing About It  We understand how difficult it can be to manage unexpected expenses. That’s why we are taking the following steps:  Regular meter reading: We’ve hired a new field service representative to help ensure meters are read more regularly in Dawson City and Mayo. They will also be reading meters in Faro moving forward.  Flexible payment options: If your bill is higher than expected and you're finding it difficult to pay them, we offer payment plan options to help you spread out the cost over several months. Just reach out to our customer service team — we're here to work with you.  Community visits: We'll be visiting Dawson, Mayo and Faro on a rotational basis to ensure more customers have access to in-person support. This is one of the reasons why our Dawson City office is open to walk-in traffic for only one week every month or two.   Resolving your concerns: Our small team is working diligently to address outstanding customer concerns in the order they are received, and at the same time proactively reviewing accounts as meters are read going forward.  We understand that no one likes high bills — especially in uncertain times. Please know that your concerns are valid, and we're working hard behind the scenes to improve service and billing accuracy for everyone.   If you have questions about your bill, or want to discuss setting up a payment plan, please contact us at (867) 993-5565 or billing@yec.yk.ca. Our customer service representatives are available between 9 am and 4 pm, Monday to Friday, unless there’s a holiday. If you reach our voicemail, please leave a message with your name and contact information so that we can get back to you as soon as possible. Our in-house customer service team is ready to help.   We appreciate your understanding as we work through this process. We’re especially grateful to those who’ve reached out with patience and kindness — it means a lot to our team. Thank you for being a Yukon Energy customer.