BGE Maryland, and an old electric bill

[mm]

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 1995

Isn'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 477

BGE 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.

[scott21230]

I'm still wondering where the 72% number comes from. When I look at my bill, I get an existing rate of about .07-.08kwh (I don't have it in front of me).

When I look at the new rate, isn't it .115 + nusiance fees = .14kwh (roughly), which is roughly doubling the rate, not 72%. Are you saying that the .115 rate includes the nusiance fees? If so then it's still a realtively cheap rate IMO.

[mm]

I haven't seen the new rate. (Mostly in that post, I was just comparing 11 years ago with last month.) I"m assuming it is 72% on the first line of the bill, because they said the increase wouldn't apply to the distribution charge, and the two tax lines that are calculated from the number of kwh have their own rates, so I don't think they are being increased, and they are tiny anyhow, 7 cents and

30 cents. Oh, that's what you meant by nuisance fees. I thought you meant there were going to be new lines on the bill, new fees, as well as the old one.

I don't know anything about .115 . Where did you find that? In the paper? at bge.com?

On your bill? (People with bill averaging were originally going to start paying the increase months ago, because their averaging period extended past June 30.)

[scott21230]

The new rate is on your most recent bill. Again, I don't have it in front of me, but it's close to that.

[mm]

The paper bill is around here somewhere. Their webpage is amazing. Have you seen it? It gives a window about 4 lines high to look at the bill! One can scroll up and down. (Another four lines' worth are unused, except for a link "FAQ" in the middle of the top line!)

So I dl'd the whole bill in pdf just now, and instead of naming the file BGE-bill-May06.pdf or BGE-bill.pdf, they called it viewSrv . They're in their own little world. Like I'm going to remember what that means in a couple months. So I have to go to another program to change the name.

Maybe we get billed on different days, because what I printed yesterday is from my last bill, and doesn't have this new rate. My last billing period ended on May 18. Maybe yours was after that.

Mine says: Your Price to Compare is 4.82 cents ($.0482) per kWh. When shopping for electric suppliers, compare this price to those proposed by other companies. This price reflects the average annual amount a customer on this schedule pays per kilowatt-hour for BGE Electric Supply. [the first line of their bill]

4.82 isn't a rate on this bill or the sum of any rates, so it must be higher than this month's rate because it averages in what they charged me last summer when rates are higher (or what they plan to charge this summer. I'm still on the non-summer rate through May 18, so summer might only be 3 months long.) That's what they mean by "average annual amount".

Tbey plan to update the billpaying part of their webpage last Sunday, I think, so you should look at the old one soon before they get rid of it, to see how bad it is. Used to be worse. You could pay the bill online but the amount due stayed the same, so if looked like you hadn't paid at all. They didn't even have text to say that the amount was the amount of the last bill, not the amount owed. If you weren't sure if the payment took, there was no way to check (except maybe via your bank). But after a couple years, they recently fixed that.

[scott21230]

I have my bill in front of me now. Dated May 26, 2006

I have BGE Electric of $16.49, of which breaks down like this:

BGE Electric Supply: 5.03 masonry->plaster). In the summer I do use my central air so it's more, but $5/month just for the electricity part of the bill is about right for me at least 6 months fo the year (and I pay much more for nusiance charges than anything else on the bill).

Having said all of that, I will probably switch to Pepco or Washington Gas if the rate is a little better.

[mm]

compares Washington Gas rates with BGE. It looks complicated. :) In fact it looks incorrect since the second line show 10.200 non-summer and

11.556 summer for schedule R. Schedule RL-1 seems more like us, but under BGE we're not RL-1`whatever that is.

You said the new summer rate was 11.03, not 11.556.

If you got a letter from them, the 10% discount at the top of the page becomes 12%, but I think only for the first summer (3 months) so that

2% extra only amounts to $4.20 total if your current total electric bill is about 40 dollars, which becomes 70.00 x 2% x 3.

I suppose if Pepco is available to you, it probably is to me and my friend, in Randallstown and Reisterstown.

And I also read a bit about Delmarva electrci. I'm not sure if it is an alternative, or only a company currently selling electricity. If it's an alternative, I don't know if it only for BGE people on the eastern shore, if there are any.

This is interesting: When will I be switched over to WGES once I sign up? New customers should be switched within a month or two, with the new supplier charges appearing on the bill mailed the month following the switch. Note: You will receive a letter from your utility notifying you when you will be switched.

So it sounds like at this point, anyone signing up will lose the 10 or

12 percent discount for one or two months or a 3 month summer.

[Bob G.]

In Frederick County the electric comes from Allegheny Power...BUT I just take my final bill and devide that by the number of KWH I used.. . I forget about all those fees etc... comes out to be about 6.5 cents KWH...and I use about 4000 of those suckers a month....bill is about

250 bucks a month.... That Rate to compare never meant much to me..the only thing I compared was how big a check I wrote evch month...

But I though the NEW rates from BGE took effect JULY 1st... NOT NOW !

Bob G. .

[mm]

Complicated, yes. To start off with, following up my own post, it's not Washington Gas on that url. It's Washington Gas Engergy Services, WGES. WG only sells gas. I called Washington Gas to find out the rate they currently charge regular customers but they don't sell electricity. I'm going to call Pepco tomorrow, not that so much money is involved -- it's hard to say -- but this contrasts so much with 6 years ago, when they gave us months of notice and lots of alternative vendors and webpages where all the rates were listed, and the first 3 I looked at were no cheaper than BGE.

This time they have a special session of the legislature, which may or may not do something, but won't do it for a week or two.

My friend called WGES today and was only able to find out what they would charge current BGE customers. What they currently charge other customers might be in the other column of chart above, but that seems to be more than what BGE charges.

They also told her that she would get the BGE summer rate -10% for this July, August and September, and next June.

If one is a new WG customer, he can switch to WGES anytime after 30 days, but that is for gas.

[mm]

I think I heard on the radio today that either Allegheny County or Allegheny Power hadn't had the rate increase yet. At the time I thought they meant the County, and I still think that, but I think he only said "Allegheny".

True, we're planning in advance.

Did you hear about the telegram: "Start worrying now. Details in letter to follow."

[mm]

My friend in Reisterstown got a letter from Washington Gas. Maybe I did too. I'm wondering if they ship the electricity all the way from Washington, won't it be cold and weak when it gets here? And what about the extra shipping charges.