[Quick links to previous parts of this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6]
I’ll take CMP Data Integrity Problems for $200 Alex…
Mr Flanagan: “I Object, your Immenseness!”
PUCness: “Overruled, without prunes and prejudice, please refrain from leading the customers into misleading things.”
Well, alrighty then, or then not, depending on how you look at it through the looking glass. Mr F, see me after dismissal.
The author, that’s me, discovered several years ago that using Central Maine Power’s Usage Alerts and the Energy Manager system were both problematic. Using CMP’s Contact Us web form was useless as my communications with this method resulted in no replies from CMP, notwithstanding that one needed to copy the information submitted as no copy is made available once submitted, ie no capability to “send/copy” to my own e-mail. A “reference” number of some kind would have been at least something. But alas, nothing.
So I installed my own “smart meter” system and I get meter readings pumped right to my own computer network right in the comfort of my own home. How nerdy is that? And I also use the “Another Way” to be discussed in Part 8.
Therefore, let us take note of the other parties… (note that I have actually had NO contact with these folks, just search engines).
Discovery Party #1
In a letter to the centralmaine.com editor in August 2019, a CMP customer wonders “how many people use Central Maine Power’s Energy Manager on their website and use it correctly.” Well CMP? How many customers? And, after reading all this how can one use it correctly at all? Ya know, problems and all.
The title of the letter piece is “CMP’s problems go beyond billing”. Bearing resemblance to my original title I decided to change mine, not that anyone will read this.
Continuing…
Said customer continues on with a mention that Energy Manager is perused often “especially when running the air conditioning so much.” While doing so, issues have been found. For example, they found that some days were a “straight line all the way across”. The Days graph has aggregated usage at hourly intervals, and is simply not going to be a straight line for normal customers during a normal day. So it has to be abnormal – Abby Normal. And a second observation was that the graph was displaying some unknown usage values even though there was no usage, ie should be 0 due to power outage. I cover these in Part 6. For the sake of coolness, here is a relatively recent day with this “straight line” problem from my very own CMP account on Energy Manager.
So there are issues across multiple customers. Look’s like it isn’t just me! Right CMP? Explanation?
Oh, and here is a non-straight line version of what really happened that day for me.
Mr Flanagan: “I object! Two customers does not equate to multiple customers.”
Well, customers is plural, so is a plurality of customers ok?
Wait! Mr F, what are you doing objecting all over the place in here? This is just a virtual presentation, not a trial.
Mr Flanagan: “Oh. Ah Sorry!? Yeah, I’m just a bit overwound from a 2 hour virtual lecture on the complete history of honest lawyering.”
Sounds a bit too long!
Speaking of too long, let’s move right along. Mr F keep up with the rest of the crew.
Discovery Party #1 comments “that the side bar is not consistently the same, so the usage graph can be deceiving.” The following 2 examples show that the “side bar” values, being different, can be misleading. In this case, the 26th seems “more active” than the 25th even though there is only a 1 kWh difference.
If one was to look at only one day, then the issue is mute. The issue is relevant when comparing multiple days, as one often does.
When comparing multiple days, then the vertical scale should be the same. But don’t take our word for it, go and ask some mathy people. Answered.
Mr Flanagan: “Wouldn’t that be a design enhancement?”
What design? Were you in Florida all this time? Never mind, let’s keep going…
Thank you Discovery Party #1.
Discovery Party #2
In an ‘Opinion’ letter, to the Penobscot Bay Pilot news organization and published on Wed, 02/14/2018 – 2:30pm, we have a CMP customer that has had a frustrating experience with CMP trying to reconcile her bill and/or energy usage from one year to another and/or one month to another. I sympathize with her frustration, as CMP should have knowledgeable people to answer her type of concerns.
Over two and a half years ago!
Yup, that’s pretty much the time frame I gave up on using Usage Alerts and Energy Manager.
But anyways, continuing…
She had prior bills and current bills. She had Usage Alerts, and a snap shot of her meter. She had a list of appliances replaced and when. Sounds like a lot of work was done to make her home more energy efficient.
She mentioned that she replaced her old hot water heater with a hybrid geothermal heat pump heater. I have one of those operating in hybrid mode. I can see when it uses the heat pump, and I can see when it activates one or both electric heater elements. The efficiency of these type of heaters depends on where they are installed. Lots of variables.
So what’s the problem?
CMP is the problem.
Mr Flanagan: “Well, perhaps if you were a bit more vocal back when you discovered the problems yourself, then you would have saved all those customers a bunch of frustration. Kinda share the blam…”
Stop right there Mr F, I thought of that. Corporate America just doesn’t listen to the little guy – they’d rather pay a bunch a yahoos to inhale and exhale out some smoke. Yeah, so no guilt here.
So let’s help Discovery Party #2, shall we?
Her January bill has a meter reading date of January 10th, and a reading value of 9047 kWh. She has a Usage Alert from some time on January 25th showing date range 1/10-1/24 with total usage of 895 kWh. She proceeds to reconcile by taking the value of her meter, 9853, and subtracting the bill reading value, 9047. Her value computed is 9853 – 9047 equaling 806 kWh.
There is no way 895 and 806 are closely the same number in this universe, so it is natural to question such things.
If we take 895 and divide it by the number of days from 1/10 to 1/24 we get 895/15 equaling 59.66666667 average kWh per day. We’ll just make it 60 kWh for ease of use.
January 10th should not be on her usage alert because that date is really the last day on her January bill!
So let’s subtract the 60 for that day from the 895. We now get 835 for 1/11 through 1/24.
895 and 835 are still not the same. What else can we check?
Continuing, one plausible answer is that the meter reading from her photo is from 1/24, say noon, and therefore her meter is lagging that of the Usage Alert because the Usage Alert records up through midnight (11:59:59.9999 PM) of the 24th. Because she is averaging 60 kilowatt hours per day, it’s possible that the remaining electrical usage from noon to midnight on the 24th might make up the difference.
If the date and time of the photo were known, then it would be possible to be more concrete in this plausible explanation. She took photos of her meter over a 4 day period and compared the meter/bill delta value to that of the Usage alert message.
And, CMP should have been able to relate this type of information, instead of simply testing her meter and proclaiming everything was just fine.
This is a reasonable explanation per my experiences and exhibits shown herein in this multi-part study.
Because the meter display represents a moving value, and the Usage Alerts and Energy Manager are snapshot aggregates about 1 or 2 days old usually, this reconcile/comparison process is not always easy. But it should be for CMP, and for CMP to assist its customers. Really.
Bottom line…unfixed CMP problems resulting in customer frustration.
Thank you Discovery Party #2.
Yes, Mr F?
Mr Flanagan: “Oh, seems like she would be happy with everything by now though.”
LOL, Mr F. I doubt it. It’s still broken today in my experience noted herein some 2.5+ years later. Same problem then, same today.
Mr Flanagan: “Maybe some of them retired folks took it with them. That and the big storms and the Pandemic thing.”
I see Mr F that you’re thinking how CMP might reply. I just might have to put you on mute.
Moving right along…
Discovery Party #3
I read what I believe to be is a Maine PUC exhibit relating to the CMP Billing Issues from a so-called energy expert from some where. The person claimed to be familiar with the energy consumption of a plethora of energy consuming devices. With that knowledge he could not explain his energy consumption during the early early AM hours and therefore his bill was called into question.
I believe his described issue to be “filler” values as such noted via other exhibits herein. Of course, this is only speculative.
Mr Flanagan: “Well that seems a bit thin.”
Yeah, but shouldn’t an energy expert have his own nerdy real-time monitoring system? If not, it’s like being an aviation expert but never having flown. Or, it’s like being a physics expert and not knowing Einstein’s birthdate. It’s like being a dairy farmer but milking someone else’s cows. It’s like being a doctor who graduated with a D+ average. And finally, it’s like an oak tree without …. nevermind.
So…
Thank you Discovery Party #3
Discovery Party #4
Also having read the CMP Billing audits by LAWYERS&LAWYERS, etc.
My conclusion is that lawyers, consultants, and doctors seldom have a sense of humor, but they sure do know how to itemize.
Failure to follow industry standard practices. Now that’s a catchy phrase. There are a lot of smart people that got pissed off from that I bet. Lawyers do that kind of thing – piss off people. Forbid even stepping outside the sandbox boundaries in a report.
Yeah, said report was more about billing, but I’d thought I’d mention that I read some of that stuff. I’ll probably forget about it by tomorrow.
Oh Well, thank you Discovery Party #4
Mr Flanagan: “Whoa, did I fall asleep or what?”
No, Mr F, not at all. Just mentioning that CMP corporate management needs a new visionary.
Mr Flanagan: “I see. Do you have a POC?”
Not yet, but for now, let’s take a breather and reconvene 0900 on some day in the not too distant future.
Hold one sec…I forgot to summarize…
We have now seen other parties, other than the author, who have directly or indirectly corroborated the previously aforementioned and possibly subsequent problems and issues in this multipart pandemic of a blog thing.
CMP now has an outbreak. According to Dr Shahski-N-Hutch, if there are 3 or more problems at one location, then that is classified as an outbreak and the bugs tested positive need to be isolated, quarantined, and fixed.
And that’s the way it is!
(Note: Click here to go to Part 8 of this Series.)