Electric Bill & Delivery Charges

[LuvOrlando]

Just wondering if the rest of the US is paying an electric bill nearly double the cost due to delivery charges or is it just by me?

Anyone know the why of the high delivery cost, fees or whatever is in the mix?

 

[kymom99]

Mine has been very reasonable this summer.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Mine has been very reasonable this summer.

Maybe so, reasonable is a relative thing. The bill is acceptable or reasonable for our household budget but might be intolerable for another family though or someone on a fixed income. But that isn't the thing that got my attention, the distribution of charges grabbed me. The question is if your Delivery Charges portion nearly equal to the cost of the product?

Sort of reminds me of the massive fee acrobatics of the old landline bills, wondering if this is everywhere?

 

[JLTraveling]

Not in New Orleans, at least not so far. Our power company is awful, but I haven't noticed any high delivery fees...though I'm sure as soon as they see that's what others are doing, they'll add them.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I just looked at my bill for PA and delivery fees are 68% of the supply cost.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I just looked at my bill for PA and delivery fees are 68% of the supply cost.

My current bill is about 100%. About $50 supply, about $50 delivery, about $23 taxes and fees.

 

[kdonnel]

There is no delivery portion to my electric bill. All fees are built into the rate plan.

The residential service rate plan is as follows:

Winter Months	October - April	Summer Months	May - September
Service Charge	$25 per month	Service Charge	$25 per month
First 650 kWh @	8.81 ¢ per kWh	First 650 kWh @	8.81 ¢ per kWh
Next 350 kWh @	8.16 ¢ per kWh	Next 350 kWh @	11.06 ¢ per kWh
Over 1000 kWh @	8.06 ¢ per kWh	Over 1000 kWh @	11.66 ¢ per kWh

There is something called the Wholesale Cost Adjustment described on Schedule P. It can raise or lower your cost per kWh without having to adjust the rate plan. It's affect is not called out on the bill.

If I look at my current bill I was charged $292.33 for 2684 kWh which works out to 10.89 ¢ per kWh which works out exactly to the summer months chart above for 2684 kWh so Schedule P is not changing the cost.

If you add in the $25 service charge and $19.03 in sales tax it takes my total cost per kWh to 12.53 ¢.

Georgia used to have some of the cheapest electricity but the prices have risen enough that we are in the middle of the pack in the country.

I'm not sure why but my household has been averaging 25% less usage than the prior year the last few months. I think the summer has been milder.

 

[fla4fun]

My bill doesn’t show a Delivery Charge. There is a per day Customer Charge of $1.15, which works out to somewhere around $36, depending on the number of days in the month, which is probably a similar fee. Then the charge per KWH is added, and there are a couple small utility taxes that altogether total less than $5 per month. We have an electric co-op for our utility company instead of one of the big electric companies.

 

[unrequited23]

My bill has not drastically changed from last year. (It's a lower since our weather has been milder than last year.) The largest variable in my area is which company you choose as your power supplier. The area is serviced by the same company--they charge a delivery fee (based on kilowatts used) for servicing and maintaining the lines, etc.

Delivery does account for about half of my bill.

Back in HS when my mom was teaching me about budgeting and bills, the local electric company was the supplier and the deliverer, so there was not a split charge.

 

[kdonnel]

So it sounds like your electricity has been deregulated. In Georgia only natural gas delivery has been deregulated but luckily my area was not, so I have continued to enjoy low natural gas rates.

I believe in almost all areas of the US that have done some type of energy deregulation the end consumer has seen an increase in price not the drop promised.

https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication Files/21-095_5398d456-f1de-432d-9a0b-cc7a58b51145.pdf

Consistent with earlier studies, we find that the costs of generation fell in deregulated markets. However, despite lower generation costs,wholesale prices increased along with utilities’ overall expenses on energy. The resulting increase in utility costs can explain a substantial portion of the increase in downstream retail prices. Overall, we estimate that the increase in wholesale markups more than offset the efficiency gains, which can occur when markets are not perfectly competitive.

So if you add a middle man to the process, that middle man needs to make a profit as well and that cost of profit gets passed down the chain to the retail consumer to pay. If areas that had been deregulated had not been, consumers prices would have gone up but not nearly as much.

 

[barkley]

ours does'nt show a delivery charge. we are charged-

$26.55 flat 'service availability charge' (includes state tax of 3.87%)
0.0680 per kWh

our current billing was for 2006 kWh-my total bill was $162.96.

 

[LuvOrlando]

So it sounds like your electricity has been deregulated. In Georgia only natural gas delivery has been deregulated but luckily my area was not, so I have continued to enjoy low natural gas rates.

I believe in almost all areas of the US that have done some type of energy deregulation the end consumer has seen an increase in price not the drop promised.

https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication Files/21-095_5398d456-f1de-432d-9a0b-cc7a58b51145.pdf


So if you add a middle man to the process, that middle man needs to make a profit as well and that cost of profit gets passed down the chain to the retail consumer to pay. If areas that had been deregulated had not been, consumers prices would have gone up but not nearly as much.

It is deregulated, thanks for that good point. When everyone was free to change a few years back I did nothing and waited for neighbors to share their experiences. In the end no-one was thrilled so I didn't bother changing & just left it be.

I looked at mine today because neighbors on NextDoor mentioned the delivery fees being inordinately high.

 

[RedAngie]

I have no clue. My electricity bill gets auto paid each month. I probably haven’t opened the e-mail statement in five years.

Same for the gas bill.

 

[MillauFr]

 

[tvguy]

ours does'nt show a delivery charge. we are charged-

$26.55 flat 'service availability charge' (includes state tax of 3.87%)
0.0680 per kWh

our current billing was for 2006 kWh-my total bill was $162.96.

Minimum fee here for being hooked into the grid is $23.50 a month. Then you pay a rate based on the time of the day you used the electricity. No delivery charge. My bill from April to October is usually just the $23.50 minimum because my solar panels produce more power than I use. And I produce more power during the day than I pull from the grid at night.

 

[disneychrista]

My bill has a delivery charge based on based on how much you use. If you use over the base/tier one you are charged more. Then they charge a generation fee. On my latest bill the generation fee is 52% of the delivery charge.

Delivery Charge/Usage - $255.85
Generation Fee - $134.96

 

[White Cat]

I have no clue. My electricity bill gets auto paid each month. I probably haven’t opened the e-mail statement in five years.

Same for the gas bill.

Same. Have no idea.

 

[georgina]

I always open my online bills even though they autopay! When we lived in SWPA I had a lot of luck with locking in low natural gas rates for a multi year term, not so much luck with electricity. In the summer I would use about $5 worth of gas on a $30 bill. I am away on vacation now, but I think the extra charges like delivery on the electric are at least half of the total.

 

[focusondisney]

Just wondering if the rest of the US is paying an electric bill nearly double the cost due to delivery charges or is it just by me?

Anyone know the why of the high delivery cost, fees or whatever is in the mix?

We have NYSEG but are able to pick a different supplier. We picked NOCO as our supplier years ago. But honestly, I have no idea how to compare suppliers. Our delivery portion is always higher than our actual electricity cost. This month delivery is $40, actual electricity is $28.

 

[HeatherC]

Our town has a program they negotiated with an electric company which is much cheaper than National Grid’s rates. Does your town maybe offer a program like this? Might be worth checking. Good luck!