I was going to post this with questions about it, but after writing it, it seems only interesting to customers of BGE, namely, you two.
Arthur, you may not be interested in this, but you should know that the 72% increase they keep talking about is only on the first line of the bill, so it's really about a 36% increase. (a little less than that for me last month) They said this, about being only on the first line of the bill, at the very start of this tsimmis, 2 or 3 months ago, but haven't said it since. But I'm sure it's true. Why doesn't the tv news, and maybe the radio and newspaper, do a better job? Why doesn't BGE point this out again, and again, and again?
Now you guys (on the home repair newsgroup) have me reading my old electric bills, in Baltimore, Md, and I have one from 11 years ago next month. It doesn't give as much info as they do now, but it gives the meter reading ------- the dates June 21 to July 23, 1985 the units used 560 the rate schedule, R the days used 32 the fuel cost amount included, 8.81, which is not important and the net amount 46.24
560 is the number of KwH, right?So 46.24/560 = 8.257 cents per KwH, right? Right.
Isn't that more than I'm paying now, which it says is 4.82 cents/kwh. Well that number is misleading. It turns out I'm paying 0.156 cents/kwh more now. That's not very much. It's about a 2 percent increase over 11 years. Why aren't they bragging about that?
Wouldn't it make the July 1st increase more palatable?
It seems to be 6.762 if one adds the per kwh charges together. But the Delivery Service Customer Charge has been extracted from the per kwh charge, and is now fixed, so that distorts things, compared to
11 years ago, when everything was proportional to the amount used.If I take the whole bill,
40.13 and divide by 477 Kwh, I get 8.413 which is just a tiny bit more than 8.257 that I was paying in 1995Isn't that interesting?
If my bill were greater, the fixed 7.50 charge would be spread over more KwH, so my charge per KwH would be a little lower yet.
Now if the prices haven't gone up in 11 years, why doesn't BGE brag about that?
My last month's bill: Electric Details Non-Summer Rates in Effect Residential - Schedule R, same as before. Billing Period: Apr 18, 2006 - May 18, 2006 Days Billed: 30 Meter Read on May 18, Meter #G025460328 Current Previous kWh Reading Reading Used
16389 15912 477BGE Electruc Supply 477kWh x .04053000 19.33 BGE Electric Delivery Service Customer Charge 7.50 Distribution Charge 477kWh x .02634000 12.56 State / Local Taxes & Surcharges: MD Universal Svc Prog .37 State Surcharge 477kWh x .00013150 .07 Franchise Tax 477kWh x .00062000 .30 Total BGE Electric Amount $40.13
The CTC (Competitive Transition Charge) is $0.0026 per kWh and is included in the Distribution Charge. [I don't know what this means, but it is too small to worry about.]
BTW, my meter was changed about a year or two ago, so my usage must be accurate, since it's the same range over 11 years, and probably much longer. I have all my bills since 1972, but it would be a challenge to find them, even the ones in Baltimore, since 1986.