Lansdale Borough officials have released a statement regarding a software glitch that lead to lower-than-normal electric billing for many local businesses from January through mid-May.
According to the release, borough officials became aware of the glitch in late May, which lead to approximately 650 businesses being billed at a lower rate and ultimately created a $325,000 revenue shortfall. The issue stems from an attempt to introduce a change in the usage calculation for a single customer, but the rate was then mistakenly applied to the other affected businesses.
“The period of impact was for four billing cycles: the beginning of January 2019 through the middle of May 2019,” said John Ernst, Lansdale Borough Manager. “During this period, those customers with over five kW demand—the rate at which they consume energy—received a bill that did not include billing for their demand.”
Though the borough corrected the error on June 1, and commercial customers have resumed their correct usage rates, officials say they have to recoup the money that should have been owed.
“As part of the borough’s electric contract, we purchase power and bill our customers for their usage, effectively reimbursing our payment,” said Ernst. “However, during this period, customers used electricity that was not billed or paid for by those commercial electric customers, and we are working with them to make their accounts current.”
“Each affected customer is in the process of being notified of the mistake, and the borough will provide as much flexibility as needed to pay the balance due for electricity that was provided and used,” Ernst said.
Officials stated that since the glitch occurred at the beginning of the year, it was hard to notice as financial accounts were still being reconciled from 2018. Once the shortfall became a trend, the borough was able to investigate the cause and discover the software error.
“When considering how to handle this situation, the borough looked at multiple options, ultimately realizing that a shortage of $325,000 would have a significant impact on our annual budget,” said Ernst. “Borough staff budgets wisely for each year, and an unexpected shortfall like this would influence scheduled programs and projects for 2019 and potentially delay items for future investment.”
The release adds that additional safeguards have been put in place to help identify such issues quickly, so they can respond accordingly.
“The borough continually strives to provide excellent customer service and reduce errors and mistakes in all aspects of the services we provide,” said Ernst. “We understand that this will have a significant impact on the businesses and will be working with each customer to provide convenient and flexible options for repayment of balance due.”
No residential costumers were impacted by the error. Anyone with questions regarding their bill is urged to Lansdale Electric Customer Service at 215-368-1691.
“We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience as we work to correct this error,” said Ernst.
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