RELIANT ENERGY In January, 2010 Reliant changed electric meters. They replaced the old ones with new digital Encore meters and everyone's electric bills jumped sky-high here in my apartment complex. Dallas, Texas

In January, 2010 Reliant Energy switched everyone's electric meters. They replaced the old ones with the new Encore digital meters and immediately everyone's meters (here in my apartment complex) jumped skyward. Many of the electric bills doubled from the usual billing. We who complained were told that it was because the colder-than-usual winter caused us to use more electricity. However, even after taking into consideration the cold there was no accounting for the extreme increase in our electric bills. Our apartment manager told me that there are two vacant apartments that have electric bills of several hundred dollars and they've been vacant for months.

There appears to be one of two reasons for this abnormal billing: either these new meters have been malfunctioning or Encore is running a scam.

Who knows?  It may be both.