News Photo by Steve Schulwitz An Alpena Power Co. electrical meter displays the electrical use of a customer on Monday. The power company says some customers' electrical bills will be on par with their regular monthly bills, despite the power outage in April.

ALPENA — Alpena Power Co. says there are several reasons some people’s power bills may not be as low as they expected after experiencing a prolonged power outage from the ice storm.

During the first billing cycle after the storm, many people figured their bills would be significantly lower because of the amount of time they went without electricity. Some people regained power only a few days after the storm, which began March 28, and others were without power for nearly two weeks.

Some Alpena Power customers were surprised to open their recent bills to see that there was little change from their normal monthly charge, and some bills were even higher than normal, despite being without power for days.

Ken Dragiewicz, Alpena Power president and COO, said the number of days on a bill could vary somewhat, depending on when a field employee is able to read your meter.

He said the power company bills its customers per kilowatt hour, and bills include the number of days in the billing cycle and the dates from the past month’s reading and for the new billing cycle.

“We aim to read your meter on the same day each month,” he said. “If that date falls on a weekend or holiday, the reading is done the next business day. The number of days in a billing period may vary due to the length of the month, as well as weekends and holidays. Per the Michigan Public Service Commission regulations, billing periods are not less than 26 days or more than 35 days. The monthly statement balance is due 21 days from the date the bill was sent.”

Dragiewicz added that the power company can’t pinpoint exact usage and specific times.

“Since meters track total usage over the billing period, we calculate your average daily usage based on the total kilowatt hours used during that time,” he said. “Our current technology does not provide exact daily usage, which can make it hard to pinpoint exactly when power was used. Usage patterns are influenced entirely by individual household behavior and appliance usage. Devices such as large and small appliances, furnaces, water heaters, chargers, gaming systems, ceiling fans, box fans, window and central air conditioning, lights, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, electric heaters, well pumps, sump pumps, water softeners, pools and hot tubs all contribute to overall power consumption.”

Dragiewicz said that when there are extended power outages, when the electricity does come back online, customers use more power than they realize. He said that because electricity was out for many days, people’s refrigerators, freezers, hot tubs, and other appliances needed to return to normal operating temperatures, which means they have to run much longer than normal.

“The power runs much longer to cool or freeze things and get them back to normal,” he said. “It’s similar to a furnace. If your house is 40 degrees and the furnace has to run longer to get it up to 68 degrees than it would if it were 55 degrees in the house.”