High Electricity Bills

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_meter

I've ran into that same problem as has nearly everyone I have talked to around here as well.

Our average power usage is the same but everyones bill jumped about 50 -80% above what was normal.

We were told there was a 1 cent price jump per KWH. That meant we went from around 8 cents to 9 cents per KWh. I can live with that but mine and most everyone else's seems to calculate at it having been a 4 -5 cent per KWH jump. When factored as total minus service fees then divided by KWH's consumed the new price per KWH is way above the 1 cent price jump.

Does your billing math add up in regards to all factors?

Check for harmonics, unbalanced lines, or low power factor on the line. Somebody may be running a dirty load that is killing the efficiency for everybody.

Harmonics on the line will generate heat in your motors. If they come from a variable-frequency motor drive running at a different speed than your motors, they can also waste your power by causing spurious vibration in the motor at the beat frequencies. Low power factor will also reduce motor efficiency. If one phase is under-voltage, this will cut motor torque and increase the current draw on the other lines.

A dirty load would probably be a large variable frequency motor drive with poor harmonic filtering, or possibly a computer server center with similar problems. Power factor problems may be due to an uncompensated inductive load (power companies may require operators of large AC motors to install a synchronous capacitor to maintain power factor). Low voltage on one line may be caused by a substation transformer problem or an overload.

If this happened in the United States, a dozen lawyers would be lining up to sue the culprit for reimbursement of the electric bills, plus possible damage to motors due to excess heat generation.

The issue of "system wide" harmonics is very real- I once worked for an offending company due to a problem we were not aware of until the utility contacted us.

IF your bills are measured in kVA rather than kW, this will show up in higher usage because poor power factor increases kVA use that does not show up (usually) in kW metering.

Since the problem affects everyone on the grid- try to find out which of your "neighbors" has added a major device recently.

It's easy to determine with tests whether you are charged with VA or W. If you are charged with VA, you are being robbed. Read the contract you have signed with company, and if there is no specific term about it consult with a good lawyer firm. It's money on the bank. If you have signed you will pay for VA (you should have known better) the only thing you can do is use auto PF correction devices but still pay little more than should. Other consumers far or near you have no significant influence on your charge so just forget about it. A meter that would have such issues wouldn't come close to production. (Unless your power company itself manufactures it)