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I moved to Chapel Hill a month ago. I got my first electric bill and was SHOCKED by how must it cost - almost $100!!!! Coming from one of the biggest and most expensive cities in America, I was flabbergasted that my electric bill was that high!!! I've never been charged that much ever in my life!!!
So I inspected my electric bill and this is what I discovered.
There was a monthly "facility charge" of $30.00 that was separate AND on top of the monthly usage charge (kwh). My usage charge was $56.00 PLUS the facility charge of $30.00, plus taxes, other fees, etc. In total, my electric bill for the month was almost $100!!!!
Anybody with the same experience??? Why do we have to pay the electric company for maintaining their facility?
Who would have thought that the mountains of NC would charge higher electric bills than a metropolis.
Probably a connection fee? I have Progress, no facility charge on my bill just straight up electric use plus small sales tax IIRC. What company do you use?
Also I don't live in Chapel Hill but I'm fairly certain no mountains out there. You need to go to western NC for those.
kwh w/ Progress are somewhere around $0.11 last I checked, not sure where you are from but what were you paying back then? Also we moved from a larger city and had a 836 sq ft apartment and now have a 2000 sq ft home plus 2 car garage, apples to apples...of course it's going to be more. Oh and with the refi I'm paying only about $50 more a month.
Probably a connection fee? I have Progress, no facility charge on my bill just straight up electric use plus small sales tax IIRC. What company do you use?
Also I don't live in Chapel Hill but I'm fairly certain no mountains out there. You need to go to western NC for those.
kwh w/ Progress are somewhere around $0.11 last I checked, not sure where you are from but what were you paying back then? Also we moved from a larger city and had a 836 sq ft apartment and now have a 2000 sq ft home plus 2 car garage, apples to apples...of course it's going to be more. Oh and with the refi I'm paying only about $50 more a month.
Piedmont is the company. It's not a connection charge. It's facility charge that's going to be billed every freaking month. I called Piedmont and was told that.
Okay, no mountains. Just hills with lots of trees.
Many people are surprised and shocked that not 100% of things are less expensive here than wherever they came from.
But a $30 "charge" every month for nothing does seem crazy.
And no, Chapel hill is nothing close to "mountains".
Piedmont does not even break it down on the paper bill. I knew about the extra $30 when I saw the online bill because the charge did not make sense at $0.11/kwH.
So if you're not a careful customer, you would not know you're paying Piedmont $360.00 a year to maintain their facility.
Whereas many utilities just charge a flat kilowatt-hour charge, Piedmont breaks it down into a flat facility charge that represents their infrastructure/delivery costs, and then a separate kilowatt-hour charge for the actual energy cost.
It's six of one and half a dozen of another.
You don't say what kind of place you're in (home vs. apartment, square footage, all-electric or not), but $100 doesn't seem unreasonable to me for the middle of one of the hottest summers in North Carolina history.
Whereas many utilities just charge a flat kilowatt-hour charge, Piedmont breaks it down into a flat facility charge that represents their infrastructure/delivery costs, and then a separate kilowatt-hour charge for the actual energy cost.
It's six of one and half a dozen of another.
You don't say what kind of place you're in (home vs. apartment, square footage, all-electric or not), but $100 doesn't seem unreasonable to me for the middle of one of the hottest summers in North Carolina history.
What's your kilowatt-hour charge?
$0.11 per kwh
I had almost the same size apartment, same all electric and the same hot summers too. I used to pay less than $70 total for electric bills during summer.
I am not complaining about the $56/month cuz that's okay. What I do not like is the $30.00 facility charge because that's $360.00 a year! And for a student like me that's a lot of money!!!
Okay, here are Piedmont's rates: It's a $30 flat facility charge per month, and then in summer months all kWh usage is billed at 10.93 cents per.
Here are Progress Energy's rates: $6.75 flat "basic charge" and then 10.153 center per kWh during the summer.
Here is Duke Energy: $9.22 flat facility charge and then 8.5841 cents per kWh.
So yes, it looks like you're at the high-end. But that's pretty common for co-ops, as they're more likely to be in more expensive to build out and maintain rural areas, areas that the big companies have deemed too unprofitable to service. So co-ops tend to have fewer customers per mile of line, which increases costs.
Okay, here are Piedmont's rates: It's a $30 flat facility charge per month, and then in summer months all kWh usage is billed at 10.93 cents per.
Here are Progress Energy's rates: $6.75 flat "basic charge" and then 10.153 center per kWh during the summer.
Here is Duke Energy: $9.22 flat facility charge and then 8.5841 cents per kWh.
So yes, it looks like you're at the high-end. But that's pretty common for co-ops, as they're more likely to be in more expensive to build out and maintain rural areas, areas that the big companies have deemed too unprofitable to service. So co-ops tend to have fewer customers per mile of line, which increases costs.
Thanks for the info! I think I should move to an apartment serviced by Duke energy next year.
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