Newfoundland Power has issued its review of customer billing, and more specifically, complaints about dramatically higher bills issued for February.

The utility says it was already in the process of reviewing customer billing based on complaints when the Public Utilities Board instructed it to do the same.

Newfoundland Power acknowledges that it received an increase in complaints about billing last month and was aware of public discourse and social media posts about the same.

Newfoundland Power says a number of factors contributed to higher-than-expected bills for February, including a dip in temperature. The utility says 65 per cent of customers experienced a temperature drop of 5 degrees Celsius or more during their February billing period. Winds were also higher in February, which also contributed to higher heating costs.

It also says that the number of billing days was higher in February compared to January, with 80,000 customers seeing a billing period that increased by 3 days or more.

Newfoundland Power says all bills are reviewed for accuracy before being issued to customers, and processes are in place when a bill is flagged as higher than expected based on past use. Over 7,500 customer bills were reviewed this winter through that process. The PUB says it will review the information received.