Utility Billing Integration and Flex Based Application Development
UTILITY BILLING: BASIC TERMS AND STRUCTURE
13
Utility Bill Training Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 1 UTILITY BILLING: BASIC TERMS AND STRUCTURE Introduction Beginning in 2001, electricity procurement for some of our facilities changed in a profound way, deregulation had officially begun. The premise for electricity deregulation was that customers were generally over-paying for electricity procurement. Entities served by municipalities and electric cooperatives were exempted from this change under the perception that citizen-owned or member- owned companies, by their very nature, had the financial interests of the citizen or member in mind. The Investor Owned Utilities (for-profit electricity providers) however, were forced to divide and separate their businesses into newly defined and isolated services. Thus was born two distinct sides of the State of Texas electric utility industry: Retail Electric Provider (REP), and the Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU). The REP is the deregulated element of this new electricity market in Texas. They represent the retail side of the market by offering the sale of electricity as a commodity to the end user. They are legislatively bound to remain separate and isolated from the TDU Companies that partner with the REP to ultimately provide the power of purchase decisions to the client. The TDU Company is the regulated side of the industry and is the remaining element of the original "Investor Owned Utility." These companies remain regulated by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and must obtain the PUC's approval to make changes to rate and fee schedules. They are the companies responsible for generating electrical power, transmitting that power to the final end-user, installing and maintaining power lines, performing meter reads, and providing all services required to get the power that a facility purchases from an REP actually delivered to the site. Inspection of utility bills in a deregulated electricity market will typically reveal two distinct sets of charges. The REP charges, sometimes called "Energy Charges" are usually the first line items of a bill. The TDU charges, with all its "Pass-through Charges" are generally listed second. The REP charges are reflective of the contract price per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh) negotiated for the purchase of electricity. It is generally a flat rate cost per unit of consumption and the calculated cost total is typically easily checked. The pass-through charges are the result of the TDU rate schedule under which the facility operates. A facility's rate schedule is often determined by the quantity of power that the facility may require at any given time (demand) and is usually not negotiable. The fee schedule associated with these charges is complicated and, in many cases, completely unable to be proven by the customer from the information contained on the utility bill alone. To maximize your energy usage dollar, you must understand both your utility billing and rate structure.
Transcript of UTILITY BILLING: BASIC TERMS AND STRUCTURE
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas
Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 1
UTILITY BILLING: BASIC TERMS AND STRUCTURE
Introduction Beginning in 2001, electricity procurement for some of our facilities changed in a profound way, deregulation had officially begun. The premise for electricity deregulation was that customers were generally over-paying for electricity procurement. Entities served by municipalities and electric cooperatives were exempted from this change under the perception that citizen-owned or member- owned companies, by their very nature, had the financial interests of the citizen or member in mind. The Investor Owned Utilities (for-profit electricity providers) however, were forced to divide and separate their businesses into newly defined and isolated services. Thus was born two distinct sides of the State of Texas electric utility industry: Retail Electric Provider (REP), and the Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU). The REP is the deregulated element of this new electricity market in Texas. They represent the retail side of the market by offering the sale of electricity as a commodity to the end user. They are legislatively bound to remain separate and isolated from the TDU Companies that partner with the REP to ultimately provide the power of purchase decisions to the client. The TDU Company is the regulated side of the industry and is the remaining element of the original "Investor Owned Utility." These companies remain regulated by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and must obtain the PUC's approval to make changes to rate and fee schedules. They are the companies responsible for generating electrical power, transmitting that power to the final end-user, installing and maintaining power lines, performing meter reads, and providing all services required to get the power that a facility purchases from an REP actually delivered to the site. Inspection of utility bills in a deregulated electricity market will typically reveal two distinct sets of charges. The REP charges, sometimes called "Energy Charges" are usually the first line items of a bill. The TDU charges, with all its "Pass-through Charges" are generally listed second. The REP charges are reflective of the contract price per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh) negotiated for the purchase of electricity. It is generally a flat rate cost per unit of consumption and the calculated cost total is typically easily checked. The pass-through charges are the result of the TDU rate schedule under which the facility operates. A facility's rate schedule is often determined by the quantity of power that the facility may require at any given time (demand) and is usually not negotiable. The fee schedule associated with these charges is complicated and, in many cases, completely unable to be proven by the customer from the information contained on the utility bill alone.
To maximize your energy usage dollar, you must understand both your utility billing and rate structure.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 2
Utility Bill Components
Utility Bills have three basic classifications of charges: • Customer Charges – Fixed charges that cover the general operating expenses of the utility
company. They are non-negotiable and may appear on the bill even if no electricity is consumed during the billing period.
• Energy Charges – Charges associated with the consumption of electricity. Consumption is power used over time and has units of kilo-watt-hours (kWh) or kilovolt-ampere-hours (kVAh).
• Demand Charges – Charges associated with the overall quantity of power used at a given time. The “instantaneous” demand for a facility is actually the average power required over a 15 to 30 minute interval and is the measure of the total amount of power being used within a facility by all equipment that is turned on at a particular point in time. The billed peak demand is the highest level of demand that the facility used during its billing cycle. Demand on utility bills is often shown i n 3 or 4 different ways:
NCP Demand – This is the term given to traditional demand, the peak demand recorded for a meter during the billing cycle. It will generally change every month. Billing Demand – The term given to ratcheted demand. Rate schedules often allow a utility supplier to charge for a certain percentage of the highest NCP Demand recorded within the last approved cycle. For instance, if a rate schedule allows a utility to charge 80% of the highest NCP Demand recorded in the last 11 months (for example - 1,000 kW) and the current month's recorded NCP Demand was 750 kW, then some of the charges in the TDU section of the utility bill will be multiplied by 800 kW (80% of 1,000 kW) instead of the 750 kW that was recorded as the NCP Demand for the month. If the facility sets a new NCP demand that is larger than 80% of the annual peak demand recorded in the previous 11 months (for our new example, 850 kW), then it becomes the new Billing Demand for the month . 4CP Demand – Generally the average of the NCP Demands for the months of June, July, August and September of the previous calendar year. The 4CP demand factors in a rate schedule governing the utility bills in 2015 are subject to the NCP Average Demands of the 2014 June-September billing periods. This implies that the all of the estimated energy savings generated from an energy reduction project implemented in October 2014 will not be realized on the utility bills until October 2015. The energy savings measure was not in operation during the months of June-September in 2014 and the savings from that measure would therefore not be in effect for the 4CP Demand until after the 2015 4CP months are measured.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 3
Power Factor Corrected Demand - Electricity within the supply grid is not able to be stored until it is needed by a facility. It cycles around the wires, constantly moving, waiting to be drawn out of the supply grid. As a facility uses power, not all of it is converted into mechanical energy or heat and some of it is returned to the system. Utility Companies are required by ERCOT (the Energy Reliability Council of Texas) to maintain at least 97% power factor electricity in the grid system; therefore, if end users return power to the system at a level less than 97% power factr, the utility has to correct the power factor back to at least 97%. Utility companies measure the power factor of the electricity at the utility meter and charge customers for this power factor correction. The formula is generally [0.95 times the Demand Reading divided by the measured power factor]. This adjusted number is used as the Power Factor Corrected Demand for some fees within the rate schedule.
Units of Electricity As we have begun to learn, power factor is a measurement of the usable power within an electrical system. In simplistic terms, if the power factor of a system is 0.85, then 85% of the power within the available electricity is "usable". Apparent Power generated by electric motors is calculated by multiplying the voltage of the system (volts) times the current in the system (amps). The units become volt-amperes (VA). Real power consumed by electric motors also includes the power factor (volts times amps times power factor) and the units become watts. Some utility companies (EX: Centerpoint Energy) show demand charges on their bills as kVa (thousand-volt-amperes) and do not include the power factor in the calculation. Most other companies still indicate demand charges by kW (thousand-watts), which does include power factor in the calculation. This should not be confused with power factor correction charges or Power Factor Corrected Demand (shown in our Oncor example in units of rpfa, real power factor adjustment, or a pfa, apparent power factor adjustment) which is calculated separately from the power measurement itself. Verification of Utility Bills The process used to check utility bills should ideally be quick and easy. In reality, however, the process can be quite cumbersome. A lot of the confusion has arisen due to utility bills being provided to Owners in increasingly abbreviated formats. Some of this is due to Owner's requesting summary billings, and some of it is due to the REP and the TDU companies having to remain disconnected as they conduct business. One of the largest sources of frustration can occur as the Owner tries to identify the source of the demand charges used in the bill. With up to four different demand quantities, it is difficult to identify which demand quantity should be used in the different fees of a rate schedule. Compounding this issue is the lack of definition by utility companies as to what the actual quantities really are. Typically, utility bills do not identify the ratcheted demand or 4CP
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 4
demand quantities, much less at what point in time these adjusted demands occurred. It is possible to back-calculate what the numbers are, but then the auditor must assume the billed amount to be correct and is not actually verifying the utility bill - they are just verifying that the utility company computer can perform simple algebraic calculations. To actually verify a utility bill, the REP and the TDU need to define each of the factors used in the calculation of the bill on the bill itself - and it almost never happens. The Owner has the right to negotiate the delineation of the factors on the bill, but the utility companies must be willing (or able) to comply. Due to the separation of the REP and the TDU accounting departments, the sharing of this type of information is apparently not as easy as one might perceive it to be. We know, however, that they did get the information from somewhere and therefore it should be able to be made available to the end user. As a result, the billing verification process must be developed within your organization by an assigned staff member (or department) willing to learn both the REP and TDU sides of the billing:
REP - Essential Information: 1. Keeping track of electric rate trends over a multiple-week period is essential if you are to
know the current $/kWh prices and, more importantly, when the quoted daily rate is abnormally higher than recent daily values.
2. Knowing current usage for the overall entity, and the plans for adding or decreasing usage (such as adding additional square feet of building area) is essential for establishing a contracted Bandwidth (+ or – usage above or below an accepted nomination or predicted consumption quantity.)
TDU – Essential Information:
1. Rate Schedule “recurring charges” 2. Rate Schedule “non-recurring charges” 3. Rate Schedule stated charges per kW, kVa, kWh. 4. PUC approved “Rider” charges (typically change every 6 months)
Overall Billing Calculator The end user must create a calculation format (spreadsheet) that includes all the variables within the Rate Schedule, and also allowing a monthly check of Riders (provided on the PUC website) to see which variable(s) has changed and which remain consistent. With this spreadsheet, monthly consumption and demand data can be inserted and the billed amount can be checked.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 5
BASIC CHARGES YOU MAY FIND ON YOUR MONTHLY ELECTRIC BILL BASE CHARGE: A flat fee applied each month regardless of the amount of kWh used. CURRENT CHARGE: Current charges for electric service as disclosed in the customer’s terms of service document, including applicable taxes and fees. DEMAND CHARGE: A charge based on the rate at which electrical energy is delivered to or by a system at a given instant, or averaged, or a designated period, during the billing cycle. ENERGY CHARGE: A charge based on the electrical energy (kWh) consumed. METER CHARGE: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s charges for metering a customer’s consumption, to the extent that the TDU is a separate charge exclusively for that purpose that is approved by the Public Utility Commission. RECURRING CHARGE: Identifies and itemizes any recurring charges other than for electric service. NON-RECURRING CHARGE: Identifies and itemizes any non-recurring charges such as late fees, or other fees disclosed in the Retail Electric Provider’s terms of service contract provided to the customer. NEW SERVICE OR PRODUCT: Notice of any new products or services being provided to the customer since the previous bill. RATE CHANGE: Any changes in the customer’s rates or charges due to the variable rate feature of the terms of service contract. LATE PAYMENT PENALTY: A one-time penalty of not more than 5% may be charged on a delinquent bill. Outstanding delinquent balances cannot be re-penalized. Penalty does not apply to the residential or small commercial customers of the Provider of Last Resort (POLR). CITY SALES TAX: Sales tax collected by authorized taxing authorities, such as the state, cities, and special purpose districts. ADVANCED METERING SYSTEMS SURCHARGE: A PUC authorized charge for electric delivery companies to recover the costs for their Advanced Metering Systems. This charge will be shared among all electricity users who receive an Advanced Meter. Your monthly charge will be added to your electricity bill for the next several years. COMPETITION TRANSITION CHARGE: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s charges for non- securitized costs associated with the transition to competition.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 6
ENERGY EFFICIENCY COST RECOVERY FACTOR: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s costs for energy efficiency programs, to the extent that the TDU charge is a separate charge exclusively for that purpose that is approved by the Public Utility Commission. PUC ASSESSMENT: A fee assessed to recover the statutory fee for administrating the Public Utility Regulatory Act. REP CHARGES: Retail Electric Providers may bundle all charges associated with your electric service into the price per kWh or they may separate the charges. TDU DELIVERY CHARGES: Charge to recover the cost of moving electricity from the generation plant to your facility. TRANSMISSION DISTRIBUTION SURCHARGES: One or more TDU surcharge(s) on a customer’s bill in any combination. Surcharges include charges billed as Tariff Riders by the TDU. TRANSITION CHARGES: Utilities are allowed to securitize or refinance their regulatory assets and/or stranded costs (assets that become uneconomical as a result of deregulation) as long as it benefits ratepayers. Securitizing debt provides funding at a lower cost than traditional utility funding. Utilities are also allowed to recover the transactions costs of securitization through this fee. SYSTEM BENEFIT FUND: A non-by-passable charge set by the PUC, not to exceed $0.65 per megawatt hour. Pays for energy efficiency and customer education programs. MISCELLANEOUS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX REIMBURSEMENT: A fee assessed to recover the miscellaneous gross receipts tax imposed on Retail Electric Providers operating in an incorporated city or town having a population of more than 1000. NUCLEAR DECOMMISSION FUND FEE: A fee that covers the cost of safely removing a nuclear generation facility from service, reducing residual radioactivity to a level that permits release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of license. Only the local wires company or transmission and distribution utility can assess this fee to any company that uses its wires to deliver electricity to consumers. AMOUNT DUE: Balances from the preceding bill, payments made since the preceding bill, total amount due and a checkbox for the customer to voluntarily donate money to the bill payment assistance program.
UTILITY BILLING: BASIC TERMS AND STRUCTURE
Introduction Beginning in 2001, electricity procurement for some of our facilities changed in a profound way, deregulation had officially begun. The premise for electricity deregulation was that customers were generally over-paying for electricity procurement. Entities served by municipalities and electric cooperatives were exempted from this change under the perception that citizen-owned or member- owned companies, by their very nature, had the financial interests of the citizen or member in mind. The Investor Owned Utilities (for-profit electricity providers) however, were forced to divide and separate their businesses into newly defined and isolated services. Thus was born two distinct sides of the State of Texas electric utility industry: Retail Electric Provider (REP), and the Transmission and Distribution Utility (TDU). The REP is the deregulated element of this new electricity market in Texas. They represent the retail side of the market by offering the sale of electricity as a commodity to the end user. They are legislatively bound to remain separate and isolated from the TDU Companies that partner with the REP to ultimately provide the power of purchase decisions to the client. The TDU Company is the regulated side of the industry and is the remaining element of the original "Investor Owned Utility." These companies remain regulated by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and must obtain the PUC's approval to make changes to rate and fee schedules. They are the companies responsible for generating electrical power, transmitting that power to the final end-user, installing and maintaining power lines, performing meter reads, and providing all services required to get the power that a facility purchases from an REP actually delivered to the site. Inspection of utility bills in a deregulated electricity market will typically reveal two distinct sets of charges. The REP charges, sometimes called "Energy Charges" are usually the first line items of a bill. The TDU charges, with all its "Pass-through Charges" are generally listed second. The REP charges are reflective of the contract price per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh) negotiated for the purchase of electricity. It is generally a flat rate cost per unit of consumption and the calculated cost total is typically easily checked. The pass-through charges are the result of the TDU rate schedule under which the facility operates. A facility's rate schedule is often determined by the quantity of power that the facility may require at any given time (demand) and is usually not negotiable. The fee schedule associated with these charges is complicated and, in many cases, completely unable to be proven by the customer from the information contained on the utility bill alone.
To maximize your energy usage dollar, you must understand both your utility billing and rate structure.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 2
Utility Bill Components
Utility Bills have three basic classifications of charges: • Customer Charges – Fixed charges that cover the general operating expenses of the utility
company. They are non-negotiable and may appear on the bill even if no electricity is consumed during the billing period.
• Energy Charges – Charges associated with the consumption of electricity. Consumption is power used over time and has units of kilo-watt-hours (kWh) or kilovolt-ampere-hours (kVAh).
• Demand Charges – Charges associated with the overall quantity of power used at a given time. The “instantaneous” demand for a facility is actually the average power required over a 15 to 30 minute interval and is the measure of the total amount of power being used within a facility by all equipment that is turned on at a particular point in time. The billed peak demand is the highest level of demand that the facility used during its billing cycle. Demand on utility bills is often shown i n 3 or 4 different ways:
NCP Demand – This is the term given to traditional demand, the peak demand recorded for a meter during the billing cycle. It will generally change every month. Billing Demand – The term given to ratcheted demand. Rate schedules often allow a utility supplier to charge for a certain percentage of the highest NCP Demand recorded within the last approved cycle. For instance, if a rate schedule allows a utility to charge 80% of the highest NCP Demand recorded in the last 11 months (for example - 1,000 kW) and the current month's recorded NCP Demand was 750 kW, then some of the charges in the TDU section of the utility bill will be multiplied by 800 kW (80% of 1,000 kW) instead of the 750 kW that was recorded as the NCP Demand for the month. If the facility sets a new NCP demand that is larger than 80% of the annual peak demand recorded in the previous 11 months (for our new example, 850 kW), then it becomes the new Billing Demand for the month . 4CP Demand – Generally the average of the NCP Demands for the months of June, July, August and September of the previous calendar year. The 4CP demand factors in a rate schedule governing the utility bills in 2015 are subject to the NCP Average Demands of the 2014 June-September billing periods. This implies that the all of the estimated energy savings generated from an energy reduction project implemented in October 2014 will not be realized on the utility bills until October 2015. The energy savings measure was not in operation during the months of June-September in 2014 and the savings from that measure would therefore not be in effect for the 4CP Demand until after the 2015 4CP months are measured.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 3
Power Factor Corrected Demand - Electricity within the supply grid is not able to be stored until it is needed by a facility. It cycles around the wires, constantly moving, waiting to be drawn out of the supply grid. As a facility uses power, not all of it is converted into mechanical energy or heat and some of it is returned to the system. Utility Companies are required by ERCOT (the Energy Reliability Council of Texas) to maintain at least 97% power factor electricity in the grid system; therefore, if end users return power to the system at a level less than 97% power factr, the utility has to correct the power factor back to at least 97%. Utility companies measure the power factor of the electricity at the utility meter and charge customers for this power factor correction. The formula is generally [0.95 times the Demand Reading divided by the measured power factor]. This adjusted number is used as the Power Factor Corrected Demand for some fees within the rate schedule.
Units of Electricity As we have begun to learn, power factor is a measurement of the usable power within an electrical system. In simplistic terms, if the power factor of a system is 0.85, then 85% of the power within the available electricity is "usable". Apparent Power generated by electric motors is calculated by multiplying the voltage of the system (volts) times the current in the system (amps). The units become volt-amperes (VA). Real power consumed by electric motors also includes the power factor (volts times amps times power factor) and the units become watts. Some utility companies (EX: Centerpoint Energy) show demand charges on their bills as kVa (thousand-volt-amperes) and do not include the power factor in the calculation. Most other companies still indicate demand charges by kW (thousand-watts), which does include power factor in the calculation. This should not be confused with power factor correction charges or Power Factor Corrected Demand (shown in our Oncor example in units of rpfa, real power factor adjustment, or a pfa, apparent power factor adjustment) which is calculated separately from the power measurement itself. Verification of Utility Bills The process used to check utility bills should ideally be quick and easy. In reality, however, the process can be quite cumbersome. A lot of the confusion has arisen due to utility bills being provided to Owners in increasingly abbreviated formats. Some of this is due to Owner's requesting summary billings, and some of it is due to the REP and the TDU companies having to remain disconnected as they conduct business. One of the largest sources of frustration can occur as the Owner tries to identify the source of the demand charges used in the bill. With up to four different demand quantities, it is difficult to identify which demand quantity should be used in the different fees of a rate schedule. Compounding this issue is the lack of definition by utility companies as to what the actual quantities really are. Typically, utility bills do not identify the ratcheted demand or 4CP
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 4
demand quantities, much less at what point in time these adjusted demands occurred. It is possible to back-calculate what the numbers are, but then the auditor must assume the billed amount to be correct and is not actually verifying the utility bill - they are just verifying that the utility company computer can perform simple algebraic calculations. To actually verify a utility bill, the REP and the TDU need to define each of the factors used in the calculation of the bill on the bill itself - and it almost never happens. The Owner has the right to negotiate the delineation of the factors on the bill, but the utility companies must be willing (or able) to comply. Due to the separation of the REP and the TDU accounting departments, the sharing of this type of information is apparently not as easy as one might perceive it to be. We know, however, that they did get the information from somewhere and therefore it should be able to be made available to the end user. As a result, the billing verification process must be developed within your organization by an assigned staff member (or department) willing to learn both the REP and TDU sides of the billing:
REP - Essential Information: 1. Keeping track of electric rate trends over a multiple-week period is essential if you are to
know the current $/kWh prices and, more importantly, when the quoted daily rate is abnormally higher than recent daily values.
2. Knowing current usage for the overall entity, and the plans for adding or decreasing usage (such as adding additional square feet of building area) is essential for establishing a contracted Bandwidth (+ or – usage above or below an accepted nomination or predicted consumption quantity.)
TDU – Essential Information:
1. Rate Schedule “recurring charges” 2. Rate Schedule “non-recurring charges” 3. Rate Schedule stated charges per kW, kVa, kWh. 4. PUC approved “Rider” charges (typically change every 6 months)
Overall Billing Calculator The end user must create a calculation format (spreadsheet) that includes all the variables within the Rate Schedule, and also allowing a monthly check of Riders (provided on the PUC website) to see which variable(s) has changed and which remain consistent. With this spreadsheet, monthly consumption and demand data can be inserted and the billed amount can be checked.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 5
BASIC CHARGES YOU MAY FIND ON YOUR MONTHLY ELECTRIC BILL BASE CHARGE: A flat fee applied each month regardless of the amount of kWh used. CURRENT CHARGE: Current charges for electric service as disclosed in the customer’s terms of service document, including applicable taxes and fees. DEMAND CHARGE: A charge based on the rate at which electrical energy is delivered to or by a system at a given instant, or averaged, or a designated period, during the billing cycle. ENERGY CHARGE: A charge based on the electrical energy (kWh) consumed. METER CHARGE: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s charges for metering a customer’s consumption, to the extent that the TDU is a separate charge exclusively for that purpose that is approved by the Public Utility Commission. RECURRING CHARGE: Identifies and itemizes any recurring charges other than for electric service. NON-RECURRING CHARGE: Identifies and itemizes any non-recurring charges such as late fees, or other fees disclosed in the Retail Electric Provider’s terms of service contract provided to the customer. NEW SERVICE OR PRODUCT: Notice of any new products or services being provided to the customer since the previous bill. RATE CHANGE: Any changes in the customer’s rates or charges due to the variable rate feature of the terms of service contract. LATE PAYMENT PENALTY: A one-time penalty of not more than 5% may be charged on a delinquent bill. Outstanding delinquent balances cannot be re-penalized. Penalty does not apply to the residential or small commercial customers of the Provider of Last Resort (POLR). CITY SALES TAX: Sales tax collected by authorized taxing authorities, such as the state, cities, and special purpose districts. ADVANCED METERING SYSTEMS SURCHARGE: A PUC authorized charge for electric delivery companies to recover the costs for their Advanced Metering Systems. This charge will be shared among all electricity users who receive an Advanced Meter. Your monthly charge will be added to your electricity bill for the next several years. COMPETITION TRANSITION CHARGE: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s charges for non- securitized costs associated with the transition to competition.
Utility Bill Training
Accredited Texas Energy Manager (ATEM) Training Curriculum © Texas Energy Managers Association (TEMA) Page 6
ENERGY EFFICIENCY COST RECOVERY FACTOR: A charge assessed to recover a TDU’s costs for energy efficiency programs, to the extent that the TDU charge is a separate charge exclusively for that purpose that is approved by the Public Utility Commission. PUC ASSESSMENT: A fee assessed to recover the statutory fee for administrating the Public Utility Regulatory Act. REP CHARGES: Retail Electric Providers may bundle all charges associated with your electric service into the price per kWh or they may separate the charges. TDU DELIVERY CHARGES: Charge to recover the cost of moving electricity from the generation plant to your facility. TRANSMISSION DISTRIBUTION SURCHARGES: One or more TDU surcharge(s) on a customer’s bill in any combination. Surcharges include charges billed as Tariff Riders by the TDU. TRANSITION CHARGES: Utilities are allowed to securitize or refinance their regulatory assets and/or stranded costs (assets that become uneconomical as a result of deregulation) as long as it benefits ratepayers. Securitizing debt provides funding at a lower cost than traditional utility funding. Utilities are also allowed to recover the transactions costs of securitization through this fee. SYSTEM BENEFIT FUND: A non-by-passable charge set by the PUC, not to exceed $0.65 per megawatt hour. Pays for energy efficiency and customer education programs. MISCELLANEOUS GROSS RECEIPTS TAX REIMBURSEMENT: A fee assessed to recover the miscellaneous gross receipts tax imposed on Retail Electric Providers operating in an incorporated city or town having a population of more than 1000. NUCLEAR DECOMMISSION FUND FEE: A fee that covers the cost of safely removing a nuclear generation facility from service, reducing residual radioactivity to a level that permits release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of license. Only the local wires company or transmission and distribution utility can assess this fee to any company that uses its wires to deliver electricity to consumers. AMOUNT DUE: Balances from the preceding bill, payments made since the preceding bill, total amount due and a checkbox for the customer to voluntarily donate money to the bill payment assistance program.
