The unusually cold winter was tough on Rochesterians who are more than ready for spring to fully arrive. However, some are still feeling the pangs of winter because of ultra-high utility bills. While larger bills are to be expected with a winter so harsh, Sen. Charles Schumer wants an investigation to see if the plummeting temperature is the only reason for skyrocketing utility bills.

Average rates for Rochester Gas and Electric Companies rose 15% and 10-15% for NYSEG customers. The companies said that they have no control over those prices and blamed an increasing cost of electricity for the rate spikes.

RG&E spokesman Daniel Hucko defended the company’s prices:
“The increase comes from the energy supply, RG&E bills are made up of two main components there is the supply price and there is the delivery charge,” he explained. “So RG&E makes its money from delivering energy to your home using our pipes, our wires and those are the rates that we charge you to do that. Those rates are regulated by the PSC and our last increase of rates was in September 2012.”

“Consumers are getting what you might call electric rate sticker shock when they open up their electric bills this month,” Schumer said last Thursday. “Economists say that electric rates are what’s called sticky, when the price of natural gas goes up the rates go right up. When the price of natural gas goes down the rates go very slowly down and this investigation might help them go down quicker too.”

Jim Staffieri, who owns The Pizza Stop downtown seems confused by the rise in prices, regardless of the temperatures. “We’re open the same hours every day, we don’t stay open late, we turn everything on at the same time and we turn everything off at the same time, we should be using roughly the same electricity,” he said.

“We are definitely going up,” he added. “I suspect that they (utility companies) are always out to get you, one way or another so I would only expect us to get robbed somehow.”

Whether or not Schumer or Staffieri are right, homeowners in the area should prep their homes and improve efficiency to ease the burden on HVAC systems so that, even when the temperature drops, utility bills won’t rise too much. Installing or repairing windows is a good way to start that process. Leaky windows are a major cause of inefficiencies and increased bills because they allow warm air to escape. Fixing them can help homeowners find some relief during severe weather.

Finding a Rochester resident who would be opposed to an investigation that could eventually lower their monthly bills might be difficult. But before that happens, every homeowner should think about upgrades that help safeguard them against significant increases.