Consumers who buy their electricity from alternative energy providers have been seeing some price hikes lately. A consumer group is asking state regulators to look into it.
The Citizens Utility Board says the rate spikes are a recent trend in the four years of open competition in Illinois. CUB Executive Director David Kolata says he thinks the companies are unnecessarily trying to pass their extra costs from the harsh winter onto the customer.
"They maybe made some wrong bets on their portfolio...and they are just trying to recover those costs from consumers. In a sense, putting them on bills anywhere they can", he said.
Kolata says its not normal to see consumer prices six times higher than the utility price. It's affecting customers who have variable rate contracts and is happening at a time the price of electricity is cheap. Kolata hopes state regulators order refunds for customers.Hear Citizens Utility Board Director Dave Kolata discuss their request for a probe into electric rate hikes.
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