Understanding your bill

The price you pay for electricity includes costs for power generation, transmission, and distribution. On average, about 75 percent of your electrical costs can be attributed to purchasing power and transmission, while 25 percent covers delivery or distribution to your home or business.

Your residential or commercial electric bill contains important information. The graphics below explain the various components of your bill.

Residential Electric Bill

1. Cost of Basic Service: Most residential members pay $14.50 per month to cover the cost of providing safe, reliable electric service.
2. Residential Energy Charge: Measured in kilowatt hours (kWh), the residential energy charge is based on the amount of electricity used.
3. Power Cost Adjustment (PCA): The Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) reflects monthly fluctuations in the cost of fuel and purchased wholesale power since rates were set. Depending on wholesale power prices, it is either set at zero or as a surcharge or a credit.

Commercial Electric Bill

1. Electric Service: Information about your meter data.
2. Days of Service: The number of days in the billing period.
3. Cost of Basic Service: Expenses incurred such as monthly costs for metering and billing, regardless of how much electricity you use.
4. Energy Charge: The total amount of electricity, measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) used during the billing period, multiplied by the charge for each kWh.
5. Power Cost Adjustment (PCA): Used to capture any changes in wholesale power cost and applied to all kWh sales.
6. Demand Charge: The demand value registered during the billing period. We may adjust kW usage for a power factor below .90, resulting in a higher demand charge kW.