Components of the Electric Bill
Message from our Manager, David Schremp:
We completely changed the bill format in 2023. Personally, I think the new format makes the bills a lot easier to understand and shows more information. However, there was some push back from breaking out the availability charge separately.
Please understand – the availability charge has ALWAYS been part of the rates and the bill calculations. We just decided to break it out separately so members can better understand their bills. Previously there were different kilowatt hour charges for summer and winter, and different tiers within those kilowatt hour charges. Then the availability charge was added in, and it was all shown as one lump sum on your electric bill. Now there is a straight charge for each kilowatt hour used and a daily charge for security lights and the availability charge. Easy to understand and easy to calculate.
So, what is an availability charge? The kilowatt hour charge is simple – you use a kilowatt hour of electricity; you pay for it. But what about everything else? What about the cost of the equipment, the wires, the transformers, the maintenance, and everything else it takes to make the electricity “available” at your home or business? That’s where the availability charge comes in.
I have two services – one uses a lot of electricity, the other uses hardly any. Yet the cost of building, energizing and maintaining those services is about the same. If those costs were built into the kilowatt hour charge, the first account would pay way too much, and the second account wouldn’t pay anywhere near its fair share. That’s why the availability charge is important – because the amount of electricity used does not always align with the cost of building and maintaining that service.