The extremely high temperatures across Southern Manitoba this summer have been affecting bill estimate calculations for certain Manitoba Hydro customers.

Director of Corporate Communications for Manitoba Hydro Scott Powell explains it's customers who don't have many meter readings associated with their accounts who are affected.

"So that would be new accounts or people that have fewer than eight actual readings over the last 24 months," explains Powell. "Without enough meter readings to establish a customer's history of energy usage the billing system puts more weight of weather factors, that's either degree days of heating or degree days of cooling, to determine the estimated bill. But we've had so many hot days this summer, and they're saying it's the hottest summer we've had in the last 30 years, that it's almost outside the range of experience of our computer system. In some cases, as a result of this, it's generating estimates that are considerably higher than actual consumption."

He notes it's not a glitch but rather the way the system operates.

Powell says they are trying to prevent more of these incorrectly estimated bills from being sent out by manually reviewing estimated residential bills over $400 for anomalies. However, he says if you do receive an unusually high estimate you should read your meter right away and call in the reading to Manitoba Hydro. He adds if you've already paid your bill based on an incorrect estimate you will see the correction on your following bill.