Wisconsin customers paid $6.3 million in back bills

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — A newspaper analysis finds that the 94 electric utilities operating in Wisconsin imposed $6.3 million in back charges on nearly 7,700 customers last year due to faulty meters, data entry mistakes and other issues.

State law allows utilities to back bill for up to two years of errors, even those caused by the utilities. Utility officials contend that the law requires them to make the corrections.

They tell The Post-Crescent that back-billing situations are unfortunate but sometimes unavoidable, and the state’s system for making adjustments works.

The charges are perfectly legal and sometimes are used to collect for stolen service.

While utilities back billed $6.3 million last year, they also refunded $5.2 million in overcharges to about 2,800 customers.