Do you have a "Fuel Adjustment Charge" on your energy bill?

[Poppinsme]

I am so sick of this!
We have Entergy as our electric company and they are ripping us off so bad.
Our electric bill: Energy charge 160.00
Fuel adjustment 206.89
Total $367.40

The fuel adjustment charge is the money they spend to buy the fuel to run there plants. How nice. Thats what I call hosing the consumers. Oh and we keep our thermostat at 76, even here in Louisiana. And keep all other electric usage to a minimum. In July our bill was $450.00. I work overtime just to pay for the fuel adjustment charge.

Does anybody else have this?

 

[Piecey]

I don't think so, our rates just go up.

WV- we keep our thermostat at 78 and our bill was $189 last month.

 

[NikiM20]

I think you may have got our electric bill........do you also get the nice "customer" charge I have to PAY to be your customer?

 

[Ms Marigny]

Entergy New Orleans is the great satan I tell ya...

We were out of town for two weeks last month, and some of those days we had no power at all because of Gustav- our bill was still $233!! So I compared it to last years bill (when we were in town the whole month) and it was only $30 cheaper compared to last year. I compared the electricity used, and we used exactly half of what we used last year! The bill was so high because of that blasted "fuel adjustment". We keep the thermostat at 78 and use all energy efficient bulbs and are very conservative with our energy use, but it is getting ridiculous!

 

[denisenh]

I am pretty sure that we have an extra charge on our electric bill too. I don't save them so I can't check.

I know, there always seems to be a weird extra charge on utility bills. I just pay the bills because I know I have to. Whatever. wacky world we live in.

I wish that consumers could baffle the "suppliers of goods" with sullbhit the way that they do us.

Something along the lines of "In accordance with my blah blah blah, this payment will be considered blah blah blah blah, to you and only you, as I will blah blah blah and everyone listed hereunder, now and forever amen. blah blah blah peace out"

 

[DMickey28]

What happens know that the price of oil and gas is dropping???

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Actually I did get a break on our natural gas bill. People who are on the budget were all complaining that it was too high (mine went up $30, to $154 a month). I was upset because we have a new furnace and new windows, but knew they wouldn't help me until winter. However, they figured out the budget customers deserved a break and knocked my budget amount down to $133--still up from last year, but not as much. I figure after our energy saving things kick in we will get a refund next summer.
Robin M.

 

[Piecey]

Actually I did get a break on our natural gas bill. People who are on the budget were all complaining that it was too high (mine went up $30, to $154 a month). I was upset because we have a new furnace and new windows, but knew they wouldn't help me until winter. However, they figured out the budget customers deserved a break and knocked my budget amount down to $133--still up from last year, but not as much. I figure after our energy saving things kick in we will get a refund next summer.
Robin M.

Our budget went from $69... to $74... to $92... to $124.

Every month this summer!
I was getting a little irritated, as I'd rather have known what to expect month to month (isn't that the point of a budget?!).

 

[C.Ann]

Ours is the actual amount for the electric that was used (which is never too bad) and then this gigantic "delivery" charge for the electric (about twice as much as the "used" charge).. Combine them together, and that's where the scary total comes into play..

However, I use the budget plan up here at the lake, so it's fine.. If I had to pay the actual "full" monthly amount, it would REALLY be tough..

 

[Chicago526]

No, ComEd needs permision from the state to raise our electric rates. They just got permision last year, first rate hike in 10 years so I really can't complain (but it didn't stop other people from screaming bloody murder. No rate hike in 10 years, what do people expect?). My highest summer bill was $113 but we had a cool summer here in Chicago and we only ran our window units as needed, not our central air 24/7. I don't envey you in the South. But then, you don't have our winter heating bills either!

 

[PatsMom]

My understanding of the fuel adjustment charge is that it is a direct passthrough and doesn't profit the utility. It is a reflection of what the utility has to pay for its raw generation capacity (natural gas, oil, uranium, coal, etc) or what they have to pay to purchase power on the open market when they can't generate it. So the increase stinks but it isn't the utility's fault. It is a way for the utility to recover the costs of providing electricity without applying to the state regulators for a formal rate increase.

 

[Geoff_M]

Our state utility commission recently approved natural gas price hikes of around 20% for this Winter versus last... even though natural gas prices have fallen. The problem is that our utilities, in attempt to head off possible higher Winter prices, signed contracts with gas suppliers this Summer when oil and gas prices were at their peak If the prices had in fact continued to go up this Winter as many thought, it would have been a smart move. But with the slumping economy, natural gas prices have fallen along with oil prices. In our case, it appears that the utilities' attempt to hedge is going to backfire.

I'm certain we're not alone.