WSB-TV (Atlanta, Georgia) 04 August 06 Snakes Blamed For High Power Bills
Evergreen, Ala: While many people blame summer heat for high electricity bills, some who live in Conecuh County can blame snakes. Southern Pine Electric says almost two-thousand customers received unusually high bills.
Customer Maria Tolin says her bill doubled to $363 while Vickie Godwin says she's never paid $339 for a power bill.
Southern Pine Electric CEO Jim Byrd blames the higher bills on a snake that crawled into a substation near Evergreen. Byrd said the reptile caused significant damage to a breaker and 25,000 volt connector. He said it happened a second time when another snake damaged a spare breaker, causing additional damages.
Byrd said that made it impossible for the utility to determine how much electricity customers used and estimated bills were sent to 1,800 customers.
He says because not all the kilowatt hours actually used in June were billed, July bills had to adjusted higher. Byrd said the co-op regrets the billing problem and is offering payment extensions to customers who need more time.
Snakes Blamed For High Power Bills