Still trying to recover financially from your winter heating bills?

Oncor Electric Delivery spokeswoman Sabrina Taylor said you are not alone.

Taylor, area manager for customer operations, said her company has received a large number of inquiries about unusually high bills.

In some areas, including Killeen, Round Rock and parts of the Metroplex, some customers say their bills went up about the time Oncor began installing “smart meters.”

The smart meters were designed to satisfy some requests from the Texas Public Utilities Commission, Taylor noted.

“The Public Utilities Commission wanted customers to have more control over their energy use. By doing so, they wanted a meter that would alow customers to have instantaneous information regarding their usage,” she said.

Two meters were designed.

The first was an AMR (Automated meter reading) meter.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Public Utilities Commission changed its standards.

“Oncor had been working on the (the AMR meter) which would bring some of the changes the utilities commission requested when the organization sent out different standards,” Taylor said.

The “smart meters” or AMS meters are designed to provide even more information to consumers.

One feature is quick, accurate data.

“This meter allows instant readings. You can go out and see, at that very instant, what your electrical demand is,” she said.

Taylor said the meters are not due to be installed in Gainesville residences until 2012.

“The smart meters are going to be deployed across the entire state. With as many customers as we have, we’re installng them in one area at a time,” Taylor said.

But even with smart meters and other energy-saving strategies, the bottom line is that the previous winter left many Texans struggling to pay bills that are, in many cases, as high as their mortgage or rent payments.

The cause of the higher-than-normal bills isn’t difficult to guess.

“The weather is to blame,” Taylor said.

Oncor uses data to determine how hard it is for customers to heat or cool their homes.

Setting a thermastat at a fairly low temperature usually helps keep bills manageable, she noted.

But when the average temperature is extremely low — like it was in January and February when the average was just 30 to 40 degrees — keeping a home at 65 degrees requires large amounts of energy.

When the temperature dips even lower, into the 20s for instance, the heating unit works even harder.

“If it’s really cold outside, maybe 20 degrees, the unit is having to make up a 40 degree difference,” she noted.

Although the smart meters are not in Gainesville yet, there are some ways to check one’s electricity consumption.

One way is to access Oncor’s meter data portal at www.oncormeterdata.com.

After a quick registration process which includes signing up for an account using one’s ESI number, the user can find data on his or her energy usage.

The portal includes a graph which depicts several month’s worth of data including the number of kilowatt hours used each month.

Spikes in usage are obvious.

Oncor is also planning a series of public meetings to show off the new “smart meters”, answer customers’ questions about their bills and help consumers find ways to maximize their energy dollars.

A Gainesville meeting is tentatively set for April 15 in the Gainesville Civic Center.

In the meantime there are some sources of assistance for customers who qualify.

There are some sources of help with paying electric bills including the Texoma Council of Governments Energy Assistance Program.

“We are asking folks to call us on Monday March 15 beginning at 8 a.m. so they can get an appointment for later in the month for us to help with their bills,” said Brenda Johnson who is in charge of the Public Housing and Energy Programs administered by the TCoG.

To set up an appointment with call (903) 813-3541, (903) 813-3566, or 1-800-677-8264, extension 3566 or extension 3541.

Johnson said it is vital that residents call on March 15 to set up their appointments.