One of the electricity providers that serves Northeast Texas has been fined $1.7 million by the state for issuing inaccurate and erratic electric bills to customers. Texas-New Mexico Power failed to upgrade its electricity usage meters to be compatible with its new communications system. As a result, the company lost the ability to record meter data and began issuing bills based on estimates of customer usage. Those estimates were not accurate. A statement from the Texas Public Utilities Commission says last year Texas New Mexico sent bills based on estimates for more than three months.
The state investigation found that the estimated bills actually under-estimated customer usage. As a result, when Texas New Mexico did update its metering system, the company then billed customers for the difference between the estimates and actual usage. As a result, some customers received excessively high bills. Two customers received monthly bills of more than $1,000. The company has has 20 days to appeal the ruling and the fine. Texas-New Mexico Power is based in Lewisville, and is a subsidiary of Albuquerque-based PNM. Texas-New Mexico has customers in Leonard, Princeton, Famersville, Emory, Detroit, and Bogota. The company has customers in North Texas, the Texas Gulf Coast, and in Far West Texas.