The cold weather means many people are facing an uphill battle with their utility bills.
NewsChannel 15 has taken dozens of calls and emails from many of you - especially in the Pee Dee, saying your bills have jumped and in some cases doubled.
We did a story earlier this week about the high power bills, which many blamed on rate increases. But those rate increases were only part of the story. The colder than normal winter we've had is also to blame for your high electric bills.
Angela McLeod, of Dillon, hasn't taken her eyes off her power bill since she got it earlier this week.
"I'm looking like is this, for real the only thing I could do is pretty much go in tears," said McLeod.
After she dried her eyes, Angela called Pee Dee Electric Co-op. They confirmed her bill was $771.
Her neighbor, Wyshonda Bethea's bill at $488 dollars - more than double the month before.
"I was like, well how am I gone pay this? I mean, my income is only so much," said Bethea.
We took their complaints to Brian Kelley, the Vice President of Marketing at Pee Dee Electric Co-op.
"The last thing we want to do is send out large power bills," said Kelley.
Brian printed out two graphs for us, showing energy usage for a typical customer. The bill peaks between January 14th and January 23rd.
That 10 day period was the coldest we've had in years, and the customer used 1,047 kilowatt hours.
The customer used more energy in those 10 days than she did in five of the 12 previous months combined.
"On the graph here you can see where the weather was extremely cold, the usage jumped up and once the weather got mild, February 7th through the 9th we had those couple of really nice days you can see that usage plummeted," said Kelley.
Brian recommends customers like Angela McLeod, set the thermostat at 68 degrees and review the energy saving tips Pee Dee electric sends out.
"All these little things that you can do to try and conserve electricity, and by conserving electricity then you're reducing your bill," said Kelley.
The Pee Dee Electric rate increase was approved last year, 23% to cover rising coal and fuel transportation costs.
SCE&G is now asking for a 4% increase for the same reason.
