How to read my electric bill

This fixed monthly fee helps cover the cost of maintaining electric service to your address. The fee does not vary with usage. The charge covers only a small fraction of the costs UES incurs to serve every customer, regardless of how much energy they use.

Electric usage is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) — the use of one kilowatt of electric power for one hour. UES' rates include separate kWh charges for energy delivery and power supply costs.

The kWh charges for delivery services vary based on several factors.

UES’ Basic and Time-of-Use residential pricing plans include two tiers: 0-400 kWh and more than 400 kWh. The kWh charge is lower for usage in the first tier.

Customers who have signed up for a time-of-use pricing plan pay different kWh charges at different times of the day. Charges are higher "on peak" — during periods of high electric usage — and lower "off peak."

TOU rates also are higher in the "summer" — defined as May through October — than during the rest of the year — which, for simplicity's sake, is called "winter." The difference is due to the higher cost of serving customers during peak usage periods. Because your bill reflects usage from 30-day periods that often include parts of two months, some TOU bills include kWh charges calculated at both summer and winter rates.

This unit — equivalent to a kilowatt hour (kWh) — is used to measure the amount of excess energy generated by a customer's solar array or other distributed generation system. Unused output from such systems flows into UES' local systems through a net meter, generating KBH credits that offset equivalent kWh charges for the energy UES provides.

A charge based on a customer's peak energy use during the previous billing period, as measured in kilowatts (kW). Demand charges reflect the costs of generation, transmission and distribution. For residential customers, demand charges are based on highest hourly energy use during on-peak periods.

The Transmission Cost Adjustor (TCA) is a monthly charge or credit that allows UES to recover a portion of transmission costs associated with serving retail electric customers. The TCA was first applied to bills in June 2014 and is reset annually to reflect updated cost calculations. This rate adjustment is based on UES’ investment in its transmission system and is calculated using a formula approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

This temporary credit is applied to the Customer Charge on bills issued from October through March. The savings range from $1.15 per month for residential customers to more than $143 per month for the largest commercial and industrial customers. The credit provides customers with direct benefits from the August 2014 acquisition of UES' parent company by Fortis.