By Brennan Phillips
Special to the Western News
The scope of Penticton’s multi-year audit of their commercial energy consumers is expanding, after an installation error was discovered that, in at least one case, has led to overbilling.
“Maintaining customer confidence in the process by which billing amounts are calculated is a priority for the city’s electrical utility,” said Peter Weber, Penticton’s chief administrative officer.
The audit began in 2016 as part of the city’s modernisation planning. After the purchase of best-practise testing equipment, and updated staff certification, the city set out to audit 100 of the top energy consumers.
During 2017, one of the 25 consumers audited was found to be overbilled by the electrical utility. This was due to an installation issue, one that could be replicated at other commercial locations. Following this discovery, the decision was made to expand the number of consumers being audited to ensure no further discrepancies.
In order to continue to hold to the existing timeline, despite the increase in scope, the city has contracted a service provider to perform additional checks on other commercial consumers, passing on any potential issues to the city for more in-depth follow up.
The contractor’s work is expected to continue through to the end of 2018.