AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Company, has responded to questions from regulators about the rollout of a new billing platform that resulted in around 12% of customers experiencing issues within the first six months.
AES Indiana launched the $84 million customer engagement platform in November 2023. Since then, 61,772 (12%) of customers have experienced a billing issue. The utility has opened more than 2,000 tickets in response to the project with the bulk of the problems relating to access, billing, customer service, metering, and payments. As of June 7, eight critical tickets impacting 17,850 customers remained open.
As of June 6, 32 customers had still not received a bill since the new system launched six months earlier. Those accounts continue to accrue standard charges without incurring late payment charges.
“The company is focused on resolving billing errors as quickly as possible. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and resolving these issues requires individual attention and tailored support,” AES Indiana said in a filing with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 11.
The software behind AES Indiana’s new customer platform was provided by SAP and integrated by the consulting firm Accenture. AES Indiana said integration began in April 2021 and that Accenture has stayed on the project to help remedy issues.
AES Indiana said around 100 customers experienced multiple charges and withdrawal of funds from the same monthly bill, which the utility attributed to an issue with a third-party payment processor, not the new customer platform.
The billing issues have been extensively documented in recent reports by local news outlets. One customer described receiving a bill for $10,521 soon after the platform launched, compared to the previous month’s bill of $25.97.
“Clearly, this is a mistake,” AES Indiana customer Sue Hildebrandt told WTHR. “There’s no way. It’s a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom house.”
Since October 2023, a month before the platform launch, AES Indiana has frozen customer late payment fees and disconnections. The utility said it had not yet selected a date to end the freeze.
Customers seeking new meter installations have also expressed issues with AES Indiana indicating no meter is registered at the customer’s address. AES Indiana said it is aware of the issue, which was escalated by the builder community. The most recent incident occurred on June 4.
AES Indiana will brief the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17.
