THE REST OF THE STORY....

In my October 19 post, I wrote that I expected to get the invoice from DP&L for the extension of electric service to our lot. Well, the invoice arrived in the mail the next day and I have finally recovered enough from the shock such that I can write about it.
The bill was $12,455! They give a credit for $5,000 so my cost is $7,455. They did not provide any detail on the bill so I asked for a breakdown. This is what they gave me:
     LABOR                        $2,547
     TRANSPORTATION       798
     MATERIALS                 3,893
     OVERHEADS                2,451
     TAX GROSS UP           2,766

I asked what the tax is for and they explained that it is for the taxes that DP&L will pay in future years on the installed equipment. I then asked how many years out into the future does it cover and he said he thought it was 14 years. So, I said "Let me see if I understand this correctly....DP&L is going to charge me $2,766 TODAY to recover for taxes that they will be paying as far as 14 years into the future?". He answered in the affirmative. I then asked if I would get any of that back if the tax rate happened to change. You can guess the answer.

They (DP&L) encouraged me to have someone other than DP&L do the trenching as they said it would be less costly ( imagine that ). So I asked them if I have the option of contracting for any of the other work. I'll let you guess the answer that one as well. As it turns out, DP&L did not perform any of the work in the end but contracted it out to another company leaving me wondering why I could not have done the same thereby avoiding the DP&L markup.

I examined the DP&L web page and also the OHIO Administrative Code to see if it addresses how much a utility company is allowed to charge for extension of service. I found nothing. My obvious concern is that they may be overcharging. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine this since I can't go down the street to another utility company and get a competitive quote from them in order to keep DP&L honest.

They offer an opportunity to pay the bill in installments over 50 months and so I asked what the interest rate is.....9.36%. What a deal, huh!

Oh, one more thing...even though I paid for the transformer it remains the property of  DP&L.

I WILL be writing a lengthy letter to the PUCO after the dust settles.

Since I received their invoice on a Saturday, I drove down to Moraine on Monday to hand deliver my check so as not to delay progress on getting electricity. After all, it had been over two months since I originally submitted my application. A week-and-a-half later I had not heard anything so I called to follow up. I was asked if I had signed an easement agreement as they could not start work until this was done. I explained that not only had no one contacted me about this but no one had ever made me aware of this requirement. Well, come to find out, the same guy who was responsible for a two week period of inaction earlier in this process was the same one who left an additional week-and-a-half go by with no action on the easement paperwork. In summary, this one person was responsible for almost four weeks of delay. At one point I tried to get the name of his supervisor but I got stonewalled.

I am glad to report that on Friday, the trencher I hired dug the trench for the electric cable, DP&L's contractor erected the pole at the road and installed the transformer (up near the house), Frontier Communications dropped off a 1,000 ft. spool of phone cable which we dropped into the trench along with the electric cable. We also trenched from the transformer to the house and installed the secondary cable and we trenched for (and installed) the water line from the well to the house. The well pump will be in before the week is up and we may have the electric meter set and the line energized within a couple of weeks. At that point, I can put the portable generator away which has served everyone so well.

HERE'S THE TRANSFORMER I PAID FOR

THAT IS NOW THE PROPERTY OF DP&L

 

In the words of the late Paul Harvey...."Good Day!"