Over the last couple of months, we have been investigating why there has been an influx of concerns from hospitality businesses with regards to their Enbridge gas bill. With our exclusive energy partner, ECNG Energy Group, we have been assisting and helping operators with issues Enbridge is having with respect to natural gas meter reads. You may have been billed based on estimates and since received a retroactive adjustment by Enbridge Gas.
As of January 2019, Enbridge amalgamated both of its Ontario-based natural gas utilities, Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and Union Gas Ltd., creating a single utility that would serve more than 3.5 million customers in the province. Since that integration, there have been significant issues with the frequency of both legacy Union Gas and Enbridge meter reads. In many cases Enbridge has been unable to obtain actual meter reads regularly. When an actual meter read is not available, Enbridge uses an estimated consumption value to produce your monthly bill. The accuracy of these estimates can vary. Once Enbridge is able to obtain an accurate reading, this results in a true-up bill, which can be significant if the estimates are inaccurate, and can lead to budgeting issues and “surprise” costs for those that have not accrued accordingly.