What are your Electric Rates

[Maquis]

There are two ways to view that $25/mo. flat service fee:

1) That's the cost of having electrical service to your home. You will pay that whether you drive a gasoline car or an electric car so it shouldn't be included in your car expenses.

2) The more electricity your car uses, the cheaper the electricity per kW becomes!

That's true, but I'll tell you first-hand how those fixed charges really suck. We have a farm with electric service. Just a machine shed with lights, an air compressor, and other power tools. We normally use less than 10kWh per month. Our fixed charge is $38.00. All in all, we end up paying about $4.00 for each kWh used!

Sponsored

 

[LagerHead]

That's true, but I'll tell you first-hand how those fixed charges really suck. We have a farm with electric service. Just a machine shed with lights, an air compressor, and other power tools. We normally use less than 10kWh per month. Our fixed charge is $38.00. All in all, we end up paying about $4.00 for each kWh used!

I hear you, it's a rip-off and utilities shouldn't be allowed to have fixed service charges unless they are really small, like under $10/month. It's a very regressive "tax" on people without much money who are doing everything they can to reduce consumption. It effectively subsidizes people who waste energy.

This is a good indicator that the regulator is not doing a good job regulating. And regulation is necessary whenever the consumer doesn't have competitive options. The system is broken.

 

[Maquis]

I hear you, it's a rip-off and utilities shouldn't be allowed to have fixed service charges unless they are really small, like under $10/month. It's a very regressive "tax" on people without much money who are doing everything they can to reduce consumption. It effectively subsidizes people who waste energy.

This is a good indicator that the regulator is not doing a good job regulating. And regulation is necessary whenever the consumer doesn't have competitive options. The system is broken.

What makes it worse is that this is a co-op. "Member-owned" to provide the best value to member/customers.
I am served by two different co-ops, one at home, one at our farm. It used to be that the one at our farm had a facility charge of $11/month while the one at home was $36. A couple of years ago, they proposed merging into one. The boards got together and reviewed each other's financials in great detail. They decided not to merge, but the one co-op saw that the other was getting away with gouging its members on the facility charge and decided to follow suit. I now pay $38 and $43, respectively. So $81 per month just for being connected.

I realize that there are fixed costs that must be accounted for (our farm is served by its own transformer that has a certain amount of loss even if I don't use any power), but the $11 more than covered that.

Almost all utility rate structures outside of some in California incentivize more consumption - the more you use, the less you pay per kWh.

 

[LagerHead]

Almost all utility rate structures outside of some in California incentivize more consumption - the more you use, the less you pay per kWh.

That's interesting because here in Washington, we get the first 840kWh/month at a lower rate than everything that comes after. We do have a meter fee but it's only around $7-$9.

The rates are 9.x cents to 10.x cents (with a bit cheaper for the first 840kWh). I like our utilities here and hope they never get taken over by sneaky and greedy people wanting to game the system for bigger profits at rate-payer expense.

 

[dbsb3233]

I hear you, it's a rip-off and utilities shouldn't be allowed to have fixed service charges unless they are really small, like under $10/month. It's a very regressive "tax" on people without much money who are doing everything they can to reduce consumption. It effectively subsidizes people who waste energy.

This is a good indicator that the regulator is not doing a good job regulating. And regulation is necessary whenever the consumer doesn't have competitive options. The system is broken.

I don't know what the "right" fixed charge should be, but I do believe in fixed base charges for having service run to a property. And for the dependability of having service there at the flip of a switch. That all costs the utility money, even if you end up not using any electricity at all.

The fixed charge should cover the utility's fixed costs, while the kWh rate should cover the incremental cost of electricity generation, IMO. The issue is how to fairly divvy up the utility's fixed costs among it's customers.

 

[Maquis]

That's interesting because here in Washington, we get the first 840kWh/month at a lower rate than everything that comes after. We do have a meter fee but it's only around $7-$9.

The rates are 9.x cents to 10.x cents (with a bit cheaper for the first 840kWh). I like our utilities here and hope they never get taken over by sneaky and greedy people wanting to game the system for bigger profits at rate-payer expense.

That's the rub in my case - a co-op is supposed to be non-profit. They are, from an accounting standpoint. Revenues in excess of expenses are accrued as capital, and after a certain time (usually about 20 years) portions are returned to members at the discretion of the board.

The exorbitant facility charges do three things 1) make the published rates per kWh appear artificially low; 2) Penalize those who don't use a lot of energy; and 3) Disincentivize energy conservation. All bad!

 

[Mag76bhs]

Where I live -

	KWH
Car (estimated)	1260​
Off	168​
Partial	132​
On	100​
Total	1660​

Summer
Base	$ 20.00	$ 20.00
1st 500	$ 0.1449	$ 72.45
Rest	$ 0.1808	$ 209.73
		$ 302.18
Winter
Base	$ 20.00	$ 20.00
1st 500	$ 0.1201	$ 60.05
Rest	$ 0.1498	$ 173.77
		$ 253.82
Summer - TOU
Base	$ 30.00	$ 30.00
11pm to 1pm	$ 0.1150	$ 164.22
1 pm to 5pm	$ 0.1600	$ 21.12
5 pm to 8 pm	$ 0.2475	$ 24.75
8 pm to 11pm	$ 0.1600
		$ 240.09
Winter - TOU
Base	$ 30.00	$ 30.00
11pm to 1pm	$ 0.1135	$ 162.08
1 pm to 5pm	$ 0.1135	$ 14.98
5 pm to 8 pm	$ 0.1775	$ 17.75
8 pm to 11pm	$ 0.1135
		$ 224.81

 

[Theburn16]

I live in Atlanta and have Georgia Power. They have an EV rate plan that allows all electricity between 11pm and 7am to be 1 cent per kWh. I feel like I’m robbing the power company ?

 

[dtbaker61]

Just curious, what kind of electric rates do you have? Where I live, if you sign up for Electric Vehicle Rate (value charging) the local power company gives you 400kw free per month (12am-6am), 4 cents per kw 12am-6am over 400kw. Off peak 7.3 cents per kw (6am-1pm), and peak hours 1pm-9pm 13 cents per kw. From reading this forum, many seemed concerned with power bills.

we have a 'tiered' rate system in NM with the main Utility which serves *most* of the State. $8/mo base fee, plus $0.09/kwhr for the first 450 kWhr.

I have grid-tied Solar, and they allow 'perpetually banked net metering at retail rate'.... so my initial net cost / (annual kWhr produced) * (25 year mfg warranty) means my electricity cost me about $0.06/kWhr, or less since design life of panels is 40 years or so.

 

[nvabill]

$.13 per kwh anytime of day

 

[RickMachE]

I live in Atlanta and have Georgia Power. They have an EV rate plan that allows all electricity between 11pm and 7am to be 1 cent per kWh. I feel like I’m robbing the power company ?

Plus all the other fees. Loaded cost is all that matters. Any per kWh charge on the bill goes with that. Any non-fixed cost too...

 

[RSH]

Virginia Power is based on season and time. I try to charge between midnight and 5am consistently for the lowest rate of 7 cents/kWh.

 

[EELinneman]

Our utility, Intermountain Flash & Flicker or IREA charges $0.11280 per KWh plus a $13.50 fixed charge and a bonus tag of $1.50 per KW for the highest use in a month between 4 and 8 PM.

We have installed solar which is supposed to be connected this Tuesday. This crappy utility requires a second meter for some reason. So, I will be selling and buying from them at wholesale rates for this. I need to give it some time to see what this does to our costs, but this is the most resistant to solar utility I am aware of.

Now, one bonus that IREA provides is every winter when we have a significant storm you get a light show of the high voltage lines that run between C-470 and the Dakota Hogback short out in the wind and snow. I've installed a whole-house power conditioner as our service voltage varies so much.

 

[Vulnox]

We have DTE in suburban Detroit area, and it's 16 cents/kWh roughly with a $7.50 set monthly charge, and some other charges that seem variable but it isn't clear from the bill what determines their cost.

We just had solar installed late last month and turned on around the 8th of November. It is helping, but it's close to the worst time to have solar power just started up since the days are short, often cloudy, and the sun is pretty far to the south all day. I am eager to see what we are producing in March and later when the sun is more overhead, days are longer, and more chances for clearer days while still being relatively cool. On Friday we were overproducing by about 5kW around noon, so we get credit with the utility. But after my wife drove the FFE a bit and plugged it in, it ate up all that credit, haha.

 

[timbop]

PSE&G here in NJ is supposedly starting a BEV program, but the incentives for solar in NJ are tremendous so I got solar this year. My panels went live in July so I missed some of the sunniest days, but so far I am ahead of the game. We have net metering with reconciliation once a year, but as of right now I have nice surplus going into the shorter months. A lot of that has to do with me driving my Mach E a lot less than I anticipated as I am still working from home 5 days a week - rather then the 300+ miles a week in commuting miles I would normally do.

Anyway, PSE&G has fees and tiered rates but the upshot is that the first 600 kwh are around $.18/kwh, going up to over $.19/kwh - thats actual cost after the service fees, delivery fees, etc.

My solar panels are costing me $.09/kwh after incentives; I wish I had done it sooner but I needed to wait until I got my car. The number of panels they let you connect can't significantly exceed your usage history without justification, so I was able to show a couple of months of higher than previous usage from my car to justify the additional panels to cover charging my Mach E post-pandemic.

I highly recommend anyone in NJ to get solar panels; the incentives (energy credits) cover about half the cost.

Sponsored