Many people in Northwest Georgia are looking at their Georgia Power bills with confusion because they show a negative balance. The question of why this exists is popping up on community message boards with many wondering if it’s a credit or extra cost.
Others woke up two weeks ago without power and wondered what happened, not realizing they were cut off for non-payment.
Here are the facts from Georgia Power:
Much of Northwest Georgia was part of the disaster area established when Hurricane Helene hit last fall. Georgia Power didn’t cut off power for anyone in the disaster area, including those on regular billing and prepaid customers even if they owed a bill. While people not directly affected by the hurricane still paid their bill as normal, higher rates were leaving many with overdue balances.
That relief ended Dec. 9 but Georgia Power still didn’t initiate cut-offs because many people had huge power bills of $1,000 or more from three months of slow or non-payments. This included both those with hurricane and storm-damaged properties and those in other parts of the disaster area. Georgia Power automatically moved amounts owed to deferred payment plans on Jan. 9. This affected primarily customers on the prepaid plans, which showed up as deficits.
Those on the regular billing plans got notices of setting up payment arrangements for the past due amounts.
Under a deferred payment system set up for prepaid customers, 25% of the amount a customer pays on a power bill goes to pay the deferred amount. Those on prepaid plans were paying what they always were but with a quarter less paying for current power usage. That led to a new deficit for many, causing their power to be cut off for non-payment.
The problem with the situation is that Georgia Power refused to return power to customers unless they paid the new deficit for the current bill plus 25% toward the old bill. This could mean a requirement payment of $400 or more, which many were unable to pay immediately.
Georgia Power’s phone system was overloaded with questions and complaints when a series of cut-offs occurred in late January. The company offered no options for those without power except to go to a local resource to get help paying their bills. That can take a week or so to get approved.
The power company said it notified all customers of the situation but many posting on community forums indicated they didn’t know what the deficit numbers meant or what to do.
Those with questions about their power bills should call Georgia Power at 888-660-5890. You have to keep stating to speak to a representative about billing throughout the voicemail to be connected with a live person.