'I don't know how people are doing it': Central Texas families facing extreme electricity bills - KWTX

'I don't know how people are doing it': Central Texas families facing extreme electricity bills

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Some Central Texans are seeing higher electricity bills than normal even though their usage hasn’t changed and now they want some answers.

KWTX talked with several residents in Temple alone who say their electricity bills are costing them hundreds of dollars more, and that’s making it hard to keep the lights on at all.

“I didn’t want to put my extra money towards my electricity bill. I honestly waited until the last minute to pay it,” says Chelsea Soares whose bill has almost doubled even though her usage hasn’t changed.

“I was out of town for about a week and I went to look at my energy usage during that time and it was all over the place,” Soares explains.

With everything else already costing more, she is used to her bills being the same every month so this has really put a bullet in her budget.

“I honestly don’t know how people are doing it right now,” Soares says. And she isn’t alone, Paige Rinn lives alone and works all the time however her bill has tripled.

“In November my bill was around 200 and we are getting close to 515 now,” Rinn explains.

Because Rinn’s bills come out automatically, the extreme increase in cost caught her off guard.

“I’m not gonna lie, I had to pay a couple of overdrafts because all of my bills come out automatic,” Rinn says.

Soares says her electric company blamed the cold snap in January for the higher costs now and if she wanted someone to come and check things out that was going to cost her too.

“He basically told me that he could just send out Oncor to come do a meter read but it was going to cost $100. And then they may not have even found anything and then I’m out another $100,” Soares explains.

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