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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Michelle Beckwith laughed when she opened her last power bill. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

She's been watching her monthly power bills from Northland Utilities rise over the past three months and when the amount due box from her January bill read $1,192.33, she could not believe it.

Michelle Beckwith has watched as her power bills tripled in the past three months, and received a $1,192.33 bill for January. Beckwith, who lives in a three-bedroom trailer, says she has done nothing different this year over last, but her January bill was nearly $600 more. She said all the problems started when Northland Utilities installed a new power meter for her home. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

"It's driving me crazy," she said.

Beckwith lives in a three-bedroom, 1,008 square-foot trailer in Northland Trailer Park with her husband, her two-year old son and 14-year-old stepson.

In the past three months, her bills have more than tripled.

In November, she paid just more than $300 for power. In December, that climbed to $585 and in January, it was up to $926.86. Last January, her bill was $330.76.

This January's bill read $1,192.33 in total because there was carryover from the previous month.

Beckwith said when she received the bill for $585 she contacted Northland Utilities and an employee there told her she should've only been billed $320, but was later told the original amount was in fact, correct.

Beckwith said the exorbitant charges coincide with a replacement of their power meter last November.

"It all happened when the meter changed," she said. "The guy said the glass was cracked."

The Beckwiths are leaving Yellowknife in April and Michelle's brother-in-law is planning to move into the home. Beckwith said her in-law is now reconsidering the move after hearing about the bills.

Beckwith said the situation is getting ridiculous, considering she will pay more for her power bill than rent next month.

"How the hell do you expect anyone to live in Yellowknife?" she asked.

Beckwith has contacted her MLA Wendy Bisaro, Northland Utilities and the Arctic Energy Alliance to try to get some answers.

Albert Bouchard, operations superintendent with Northland Utilities, said he was familiar with the Beckwiths' issues and suggested they contact the Arctic Energy Alliance for an energy audit.

He said servicemen and technicians had been to the house to verify the meter was working properly.

Bouchard said surprises sometimes find their way onto bills and said existing appliances, like hot water tanks, may not be working properly.

"We are certainly getting our share of complaints," he said, adding at this time of year, bills are typically higher as more energy is used to keep homes and appliances heated in the cold winter months.

"With rate hikes, it escalates the whole issue," he said.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation and Northland Utilities have both recently had rate increases approved by the Public Utilities Board.

The Beckwiths own the normal array of appliances: oven, dishwasher, fridge, washer and drier, television.

However, Andrew Robinson, executive director of the Arctic Energy Alliance, said it might be their electric furnace that is drawing the bulk of the power.

He calculated the average amount of fuel used for a typical oil furnace to heat a small home for the winter. Robinson said factoring out inefficiencies in burning it takes around 2,200 litres of fuel to heat a trailer.

"Converting (2,200 litres) into electricity, that is about 24,000 kilowatt hours," he said, adding it would cost about $5,000 per year to heat that home using electricity.

"If that's the case, then why hasn't this been happening all along?" responded Beckwith.

She said she's had the furnace as long as she can remember, and last year's January bill was just barely a third as high as this year's. She said the furnace was last inspected in 2008.

Also, last year she said she had three vehicles plugged in over the winter. This year, she has only two, which aren't always plugged in.

"How can I pay for something I have no control over?" she asked.

Robinson said he has heard more complaints than usual this year about high bills.

However, he said in investigations, 90 per cent of the time they find the cause for the energy drain.

For instance, on some bills, they have found the customer was being charged for 34 days and not 28, or that an electric hot water heater was not working properly.

"But sometimes, we have a couple cases where things are just bizarre," he said.

Bisaro said she's been monitoring the situation and said she's heard anecdotal stories about people having their costs doubling in a month.

"I'd be happy if my bill just doubled," laughed Beckwith.

On Thursday afternoon, she said Northland Utilities technicians were going to visit the house to look at the wiring up the meter.

"Now they are saying our old meter may have been defective," she said, meaning she may have been undercharged on previous bills. She added, however, that Northland Utilities could not examine it because it had been thrown away.

Bouchard confirmed this.

Beckwith said when the technicians came by to look at her meter, they told her they thought they were going to a commercial property, based on the power usage - clocked in at just under 4,000 kilowatt hours in January.

Beckwith said she expected her bills to rise this time of the year, but this was too much.

"They already told us our next bill is going to be higher than the last one," she said.

She added she would be holding firm and only pay around $300.00 - or her average bill - until she was satisfied with an explanation.