Energy Bill

A while back I made a comment/joke about how my electricity bill will be cut in half after my little brother moves out; today I received my first Xcel Energy bill since he moved. Guess what? My electric bill is less than half of what it was last year for the same billing period! This lead me to examine my bill a little closer and I realized that I have no idea what I am being charged for. Yes I can figure out the electricity usage and the gas usage but what the hell is all of that extra stuff? 

I started going through my bill, now this is not a fun thing to do and quite frankly if I was not just hanging out waiting for a friend I probably would not have done this, well, maybe I would but it is not something I normally do. Ok, so as I was saying; I start going through my bill line by line and the first thing I see? "current energy charges" and under that "current other charges," well current charges was easy enough that's the total I have to pay this month.  After searching a little more I figured out current other charges was my  HomeSmart charge; HomeSmart is a program Xcel Energy has for your home appliances. 

Now onto the more intricate parts of the bill:

Basic Service Charge

Energy Charge Summer

Energy Charge Winter

Environment Improvement Rider

Fuel Cost Charge

Resource Adjustment 

City fees

Transit Improvement Tax

City Tax

State Tax

whew I'm exhausted and this is only the Electric  charges, now you can add gas charges:

Basic Service charge

Cost of Gas

Gas Affordability

Distribution Adjustment

City fees

Transit Improvement Tax

City Tax

State Tax

It's crazy, so off I go to the Xcel Energy website to try to figure out what all of this means. First stop "understanding my bill" and from there "Billing Glossary," now we're getting somewhere. I perused through the glossary checking off what was on my bill with each definition, for the most part I found each of the charges but there were a couple I could not find so now it's on to the telephone. Xcel has a 1-800 number you can call to speak to a representative, it took a few seconds to press the appropriate numbers in order to be put on hold waiting, tick tock, tick tock, please hold, muzak, tick tock, advertisement for Energy Star furnace, more muzak, tick tock, apology, please hold, tick tock... advertisement for furnace filter.. Hello this is Ryan how may I help you? Surprise less than 3 minutes and I had a service representative, an actual live person on the line, yippee!  

Hi Ryan, I have two questions for you about the charges on my bill, first question, "what is the Transit Improvement Tax?" Ryan: hmmm did you check the back of your statement "understanding your bill?" Me: quickly turning my statement over " I checked the Internet site and um no there's nothing on the back of the statement either" Ryan: "let me check...Ok here it is effective July 01, 2008, five counties, Dakota, Ramsey, Anoka, Hennipen and Washington tax to be used to fund improvements to light rail, commuter rail and bus transportation."  Whew, it's something new on the bill, no wonder I don't know anything about it. Now question number two: "What is the Environment Improvement Rider?" Ryan: "that's an increase that allows Xcel to recoup some of the cost for the new King Plant in Oak Park Heights, and the cost to convert the High Bridge plant in St. Paul and the Riverside plant in Minneapolis from coal to natural gas." Ryan: "most of the charges on your bill are to pay for the cost of getting power to your house." OK Ryan, thanks for your help. You're welcome is there anything else I can help you with? No, thanks enjoy your day. Thank you for calling Xcel, bye. Bye.

Hmpf I should have asked him why there is a Winter and Summer energy charge, I guess that can wait for the next statement. One thing I noticed is that both your City taxes and State taxes are applied to your City fees in addition to everything else. It's a little deceiving how they are listed because you get a subtotal which makes you believe that that is what you're being taxed on but your City fees are added to the subtotal before your taxes are assessed. And another thing; you pay City fees, City taxes, Transit Improvement taxes and State taxes on both your electric charges and gas charges separately, this just does not seem right. The money is all going to the same place why charge them separately? Oh yeah, more money for the City and State. 

I also noticed that I used exactly the same amount of Gas/therms per day for the same billing period last year as I did this year, 0.6 but the cost is $.08 higher this year. I am happy that my electrical bill is half of what it was a year ago because from what I hear our gas prices are going to double this winter. I can't say as I recommend picking apart your energy bill but it is nice to know what it all means so if you have a free afternoon, maybe you're stuck waiting for a service person or a friend who is running late then you too can check out your energy bill.  

Have fun :)