(a) Bills for service will be rendered by the Company to the customer in accordance with the rate selected applicable to the customer’s service. Bills are payable at the main office or any of the collection offices of the Company or other places designated by the Company. Customers not receiving their monthly or bi-monthly bills at the usual time should make inquiry of the Company in order to preserve their rights to discounts for prompt payment, as the Company does not permit an extension of the discount period because of the failure to receive the bill. When payment of a bill is sent by United States mail, the applicable prompt payment discount will be allowed if it is evidenced by legible postmark that such payment was mailed on or previous to the last day of the discount period. In the absence of such postmark, a bill will be considered paid on the date of its receipt by the Company.
(b) In the event of the stoppage of or the failure by any meter to register the full amount of current consumed, the customer will be billed for such period on an estimated consumption based on his or her use of current in a similar period of like use.
(c) Where service is rendered under the rate schedule provisions which do not require monthly demand measurements, meters may be read and bills rendered either monthly or bi-monthly, at the Company’s option. When bills are rendered bi-monthly, the minimum bill and the number of kilowatt-hours included in each energy block of the rate shall be twice the amount specified for monthly billing.
(d) Residential customers using electric service as the primary source for house heating and commercial customers whose principal energy requirements, including all space heating and any air conditioning are furnished by electric service, shall have the option of paying bills under the Company’s budget plan. The total service for the eleven-month period following the customer’s acceptance of the budget billing plan will be estimated in advance and budget bills will be rendered monthly on the basis of one-eleventh of the 11-month estimate. The bill for the twelfth month shall be computed as provided in the appropriate rate schedule and also shall include as a charge or credit, any difference between bills based on actual use of service during the budget period and budget bills paid during such period. If a customer fails to pay budget bills as rendered, the Company shall have the right of withdrawing the budget plan with respect to such customer and restoring the customer to billing as provided for in applicable rate schedule.
(e) The Company may, at its option read meters and compute bills in units of ten kilowatt-hours for residential and small commercial customers, and in units of ten kilowatt-hours or larger where required by meter design or use of instrument transformers.
(f) The Company may, through the use of a dial card or other device supplied by it to a customer, require such customer to furnish promptly to the Company for billing purposes a current reading of such customer’s meter. If such dial card or device is not promptly returned by a customer, or if inclement weather or any other cause prevents the reading of a customer’s meter by the Company, the Company shall have the right to estimate a customer’s bill and to make any necessary billing adjustments, without interest, on a subsequent bill based upon a reading of such meter.
(g) All rates of the Company for electric service are subject to the approval of the West Virginia Public Service Commission and may be changed from time to time as approved by such Commission.