Friday, September 5, 2014

Why are you proposing to increase facilities charges?

We’re proposing a change to the electric facilities charge to provide a more transparent bill that more accurately reflects delivery costs.

Your electric bill includes two main charges – the energy charge and the electric facilities charge.

The energy charge is the cost of electricity. It covers the cost of generating electricity, including power generation equipment (power plants, hydroelectric plants, wind turbines, etc.) and the fuel needed for the power generation process (natural gas, coal, biomass material, etc.). Two key factors that influence your energy charge are fuel costs and how much energy you use.

The electric facilities charge is the cost to serve you. This includes meters, pipes, poles and wires; personnel to respond to customer service issues, and crews to make upgrades and repairs to thousands of miles of pipes and wires that delivery energy to your home.

Over the years, the energy charge was used, in part, to pay for delivery costs – such as the service, metering, billing, poles, wires and so on. Our proposal adjusts the charges so that the electric facilities charge more accurately reflects delivery costs. 

We are requesting to increase the facilities charge from $9 to $16 per month (or from 30 cents to 52.6 cents per day) for residential and some small commercial customers. This proposed change enables us to propose a lower energy charge. This change would result in more than 60 percent of customers seeing a savings, no change or an increase of no more than $4 on their monthly bill. 

We are committed to maintaining a system that provides reliable service in an environmentally responsible way, while keeping our rates fair and affordable for all customers. We believe these changes will facilitate a more transparent bill and more accurately reflect the true cost of service.

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