Electricity rates

[Bob Ha]

Saw a thread on here about saving electricity and made me think about the rates. I just signed up for another year for 8.2 cents per kwh @ 2000 kwh and 8.5 cents per kwh @ 1000 kwh.

What's everyone else paying?

 

[Bocephous]

I just looked at my bill.

Generation: 960KWH @ 0.066
Distribution: 960KWH @ 0.0336

So, total is 0.0996. I belong to a rural electric cooperative; I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

 

[clemsonfor]

Im thinking were up to about 12 cents a KWH? im going to check.

Edit just looked at my last bill. Im paying $0.1254 cents per KWH. This is not using the fees etc on the total but dividing the straight electric costs by the hours used.

690 hours used and total elec. billed was $86.50, giving the total of
.1254 cents per kwh.

I wish we had those 0.08 cent rates, i remember those in college where i lived just a few years ago. We even get most of our power from the dreaded cheap Coal!!!

 

[NorTracNY]

Rates do vary all over the county. The information is available online.

US Electric Rates by State

 

[KTurner]

The rates are not what I'd call straightforward. I believe I've found everything that goes into my basic residential rate bill and put it into a spreadsheet (just because I wanted to know). It's accurate to within what I'd consider a rounding error. The various charges are basic customer charge, distribution (the year is broken into two parts, each of those has a first 800kwh and a >800kwh), generation (the year is broken into two parts, each of those has a first 800kwh and a >800kwh), peak shaving rider, energy efficiency rider, transmission rider, taxes (broken into first 2500kwh and > 2500kwh) and a fuel rider. All of these except the basic charge are per kwh. These charges were NOT listed in a single place. I had to hunt through multiple documents on their website.

One thing that's going to mess up your comparison is the basic customer charge, which is $7 for me no matter how much I use. If I only use 100 kwh, that's effectively another $0.07 per kwh for the basic customer charge. But if I use 700kwh, that drops down to $0.01 per kwh. This can make a pretty big difference in the per kwh rate if you're using small amounts.

My simplified rate (bill total / total kwh) has ranged from $0.093 to $0.116 over the past three years due to rate changes and amount used.

Keith

 

[Bob Ha]

How I select my provider: I sort the provider list by fewest complaints. Then I select the top 10 and then sort those by kWh rates (ascending). Once I have that list then I make the decision based on complaints vs rates.

Below is how my rates are calculated based on 1000kWh and 2000kWh used.
Energy Fixed Energy Price 5.15 (cents per kWh)
Pass-through Distribution Charge 2.77 (cents per kWh)
Pass-through Customer & Meter Charge $6.24 (flat rate charge, divide by kWh used to get charge per kWh)

.0515 + .0277 = .0792
$6.24 / 1000 = .00624
.0792 + .00624 = .08544 cents per kwh

.0515 + .0277 = .0792
$6.24 / 2000 = .0032
.0792 + .0032 = .0824 cents per kwh

 

[clemsonfor]

One thing that's going to mess up your comparison is the basic customer charge, which is $7 for me no matter how much I use. If I only use 100 kwh, that's effectively another $0.07 per kwh for the basic customer charge. But if I use 700kwh, that drops down to $0.01 per kwh. This can make a pretty big difference in the per kwh rate if you're using small amounts.

Keith

I did not even include my municipality taxes or my basic facility fee in my price. The basic fee i think was $8.50 regardless if i use 1kwh or 1000kwh. The taxes i think are like 3% of the bill.

How I select my provider: I sort the provider list by fewest complaints. Then I select the top 10 and then sort those by kWh rates (ascending). Once I have that list then I make the decision based on complaints vs rates.

Below is how my rates are calculated based on 1000kWh and 2000kWh used.
Energy Fixed Energy Price 5.15 (cents per kWh)
Pass-through Distribution Charge 2.77 (cents per kWh)
Pass-through Customer & Meter Charge $6.24 (flat rate charge, divide by kWh used to get charge per kWh)

.0515 + .0277 = .0792
$6.24 / 1000 = .00624
.0792 + .00624 = .08544 cents per kwh

.0515 + .0277 = .0792
$6.24 / 2000 = .0032
.0792 + .0032 = .0824 cents per kwh

What !! you have a choice on who supplies your power?? Everywhere i have ever lived you only have one choice, power or no power. Ihave lived in 7 places including with my parents when i was a kid. two of the houses were in same municiplality bacically and where i live now is 3 hours from there yet same power company. This is SCEG i have had duke power and an elec co op and town power in one place. Never did i have a choice of providers? Maybe in mega cities like DFW area but not in smaller markets, even the 3 biggest cities in SC only have 1 choice, so its not a choice really.

 

[ultrarunner]

Peak Rates are high... about 34 cents a killowatt here in the SF Bay Area...

I will have to pull a recent bill and divide the cost by the Kwh...

Last time I did this it was about 24 cents Kwh.

 

[clemsonfor]

Peak Rates are high... about 34 cents a killowatt here in the SF Bay Area...

I will have to pull a recent bill and divide the cost by the Kwh...

Last time I did this it was about 24 cents Kwh.

WHAT!! I thought our 12 cents an hour rates were about middle of the road and like 16 cents an hour was high. 30 cents an hour seems outragous. How can you even afford to run your AC or turn on lights!! My summer power bills hurt when there around $240. At your prices they would be nearly $700 month!!

 

[Tig]

Around here we get clobbered by delivery charges and then nickel and dimed by "debt retirement charges" and a line loss factors of just under 10%
The line loss multiplication factor is used to reconcile the amount of power generated by the plant to what is billed to all users. It pays for theft, line loss etc.
Those charges can account for 50% of my final bill.

 

[Bob Ha]

What !! you have a choice on who supplies your power?? Everywhere i have ever lived you only have one choice, power or no power. Ihave lived in 7 places including with my parents when i was a kid. two of the houses were in same municiplality bacically and where i live now is 3 hours from there yet same power company. This is SCEG i have had duke power and an elec co op and town power in one place. Never did i have a choice of providers? Maybe in mega cities like DFW area but not in smaller markets, even the 3 biggest cities in SC only have 1 choice, so its not a choice really.

I have many providers that do the billing but in my area but ONCOR handles the actual electricity and maintenance. I think it's called TDU but I'm not sure. The providers are only a billing service. See link below

Power to Choose

 

[Carl_NH]

We pay about $.18 per KWH here in PSNH utlilty. For 550KWH $95 a month

The delivery charge, base charge, stranded line costs, etc total $50 of the total or $.09 per KWH

Then the actual electricity is $.085 per KWH

We could buy the electricity from a co-op for $.075 so would save $5 a month but there are other areas we can save more - such as reduced use..

Having a 1.5HP deep well sub pump and irrigation and A/C units in the summer push our usage up to 900KWH and the bill goes up by $30-35 those months. So it does get little less the more we use, but its still high.

 

[LD1]

Central ohio and a rural coop, I am at 10.5-11 cents per kwh.

I average ~2000kwh usage and bills between 210-220

 

[LD1]

Rates do vary all over the county. The information is available online.

US Electric Rates by State

Interesting, BUT........just like everything else I can find online regarding this subject.......

ITS ABOUT 5 YEARS OUT OF DATE:confused2:

the information (if it is out there somewhere) I havent been able to ever find. I dont care what the rates were 5 years ago:confused2:

On a side note, that chart is pretty accurate for the date. Because 5 years ago, it was ~8.5 cents in ohio

 

[dmccarty]

Usually we pay 10 cents per KWH. Sometimes it is 11 cents but that is rare. I take the total bill and divide by the KWH used.

We only have one choice to supply power.

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

WHAT!! I thought our 12 cents an hour rates were about middle of the road and like 16 cents an hour was high. 30 cents an hour seems outragous. How can you even afford to run your AC or turn on lights!! My summer power bills hurt when there around $240. At your prices they would be nearly $700 month!!

Just checked the rate schedule and the above is accurate... it comes out even higher with the total charge is divided by Kwh...

I've never lived in a home with A/C .... only one house in the neighborhood has it and that was because the wife was an invalid...

Part of the reason CA has lots of Solar installs is undoubtedly tied to our high Kwh costs...

The tiered rate is basically enough for a small refrigerator and some lights...

http://www.pge.com/tariffs/ResElecCurrent.xls

 

[MtHam]

California has some of the highest rates in the country due to bad decisions made in the late 90's by our elected state officials. They locked us into outrageous future energy costs with long term contracts because they feared shortages. The Enron bubble was part of the deal. $0.35/kwh and higher is a reality for large users at peak hours. PG&E's tiered rate system provides a small # of kwh's at a low rate, but then steps progressively higher as you use more. It makes investing in solar a smart decision. Thus, my 6kw grid tied array will pay for itself in less than 10 years, quicker as the rates go higher, which is almost a certainty. They plan on having everyone on a "time of use" meter in the near future. Thus if you run your AC on summer afternoons (highest rates) you will be forced to pay their outrageously high top prices. Fortunately for me, this is when my solar system is producing the most, and I sell most of the output to them at their top rate!

 

[grsthegreat]

$0.055/kwh here in north idaho. Hydroelectric power here. Bills run about 80-90 bucks per month. Have heat pump and a/c. Dont use the a/c much as we dont have too many real hot days.

Cooktop and water heaters are gas. Back up emergency heat is also gas

 

[clemsonfor]

Dosent it get like 90 degrees there in the summer? No AC how do you sleep with your house in the 80s!

 

[wthompson]

Here in southeast Georgia we pay $0.094 KWH before taxes (county & state):thumbdown: with taxes and one outdoor light it's $0.11 KWH.