Southwest Gas corrects small errors in recent bill cycle

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

Officials with Southwest Gas Corp. on Monday said the utility has corrected errors that affected about 239,000 bills statewide mailed between Sept. 1 and Dec. 15.

The issue was related to a computer problem that affected the application of a rate increase on some residential bills, said Southwest Gas spokeswoman Robyn Clayton. She said the average discrepancy was about $1, and that it materialized in an under- or over-collection, depending on usage.

The balance will be corrected on subsequent bills, Clayton said.

"I saw that one (discrepancy) amounted to 4 cents," she said.

The problem affected only customers who, during that period, had a billing cycle of 34 days or more or 27 days or less. The billing cycle is determined by the number of days between meter readings.

During that same September to December period, Clayton said, about 2 million Southwest Gas bills were mailed with most unaffected by the problem.

Rebecca Wagner, a spokeswoman for the Public Utilties Commission, said the commission is aware of the problem and is investigating the circumstances surrounding the errors. She said the problem was discovered when commission staff members began reviewing their personal bills.

"It happened to a lot of people here at the commission," she said.

Clayton said the company is working with the PUC on its inquiry.

"What we are doing now is providing the PUC with information," Clayton said. "They do know that the computer problem is fixed."

Consumers with questions about their bills can contact Southwest Gas at (702) 365-1555.