I live in the NorthEast, and recently while paying my electric bill, I was looking over the costs (all prices cents per kWh):
- 8.123 – Service Rate
- 2.928 – Transmission Charge
- ??? – Distr Cust Srvc Charge (flat rate?)
- 0.246 – System Improvements
- 5.739 – Distr Chrg
- -0.011 – Revenue Adj Mechanism
- -0.058 – CTA Chrg
- 0.89 – FMCC Delivery Chrg
- 1.259 – Comb Public Benefit Chrg
- Subtotal Delivery Services $87.60
- Subtotal Supplier Services $57.75
Why, is the delivery charge so much higher than the actual cost of manufacture (of electricity)? I realize that Eversource doesn’t really produce the electricity, they are only resellers (so the price of the electricity is higher than it should be), and that the system needs to be maintained/upgraded from time to time, and some of the fees, maybe all of them, are government regulated/required.
Still, what’s the deal? Is the government and it’s general fund fixes all attitude running Eversource? What is the deal?
Follow up Feb 17, 2020:
I recently asked Eversource why electrical transmission cost so much –
Why is the delivery price of electricity so high? It’s more than the actual electricity cost – 140%. That is unreasonable.
The response was (and the customer care agent is the one that spelled Eversource incorrectly) –
Thank you for your email, Robert. We’re happy to explain the delivery charges.
These charges are made up of several different items related to the transmission and delivery of electricity and maintenance of the electric distribution system that delivers electricity to your home or business. You can find a more detailed description of the line item charges on your bill at Evesource.com by clicking here. (Note: I removed the link – if you’re curious, you can find their reasoning at their site.)
Both supply and delivery charges are fixed rates that are multiplied by the amount of energy you use each month, which means you can manage these costs by reducing your energy use. Take care.
Thank you,
Name Removed Because it’s not cool to make that person responsible for the company she keeps
Eversource Customer Care
My thoughts, hmmm, you mean, if I use more, I have to pay more? Must be a math thing – kind of like:
- If I pay give or take $100.00 per month (let’s assume $100.00 is a reasonable average for their clientele – also makes the math easier) for transmission fees (more than 140% of the cost of the actual electricity itself – saying it again in the hopes that it sinks in),
- and we round that to 10 months (to make the math easier), that’s $1,000.00 per year.
- Multiply that by 1 million (very round figure of 1/3 the population of the state using/paying for electricity),
- and you arrive at $1 Billion dollars a year in transmission costs ($1,000,000,000.00/year).
Sure, that number probably isn’t even close to the real number (I envision it being higher), but you get the point. I can’t even imagine that much money being needed by Eversource for anything.
My question is, why isn’t anyone talking about this?