Duke apologizes for billing mistakes

TAMPA (FOX 13) - It’s not a good week to be a Duke Energy customer.

As tens of thousands have been without power for days, people are opening their Duke Energy bills to find out they were overcharged.

One woman we spoke to says she usually pays around $170. She knew something was wrong when she was charged $592.

Hundreds of people sounded off with similar issues in her neighborhood’s Facebook group.

Duke says the high bills are a result of a mistake in the way wattage usage is estimated.

Customers who received these bills can disregard. New bills with accurate charges will be sent out, but talk about bad timing.

 “We’ve been out of work. I don’t even know how I’m going to pay my mortgage, let alone a $600 electric bill,” Becky Barreiro said.

Duke apologized for the additional stress the mistake has caused. It says right now the focus is on getting people’s power back on.