BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–As of January 1, 2017, Berkeley Electric Cooperative will be restructuring its rates by unbundling the energy charge on its members’ bills. This restructuring will only affect residential and small commercial accounts.
The restructuring is primarily centered on what is currently known as the “Facilities Charge.” This charge covers the fixed costs of providing service to our members for items like poles, wires, transformers, meter testing, substations, buildings and maintenance, insurance and much more. This charge is also currently ”bundled” in with the energy charge and is not listed separately on your monthly energy bill.
Next month, residential members will see a “Service Availability Charge” of $0.99 per day listed on their power bill. Small commercial members will see a daily charge of $1.17. Small commercial accounts are those which have transformers rated up to 100 kVa.
This rate restructuring is intended to be revenue neutral. It is not a rate hike. The majority of our members will see no change in the cost of their electric bill, or possibly even a lower bill.
This is due to the second part of the rate restructuring which eliminates tiered rates based on a member’s kilowatt-hour (kWh) usage.
It also lowers the base rate for kWh usage. There will now be one rate for all residential and small commercial members. This new rate system will, however, still include summer and winter rates.
For additional info, click on the links below:
What is a Service Availability Charge?
What is a Cost of Service study?
Why haven’t you charged this before?
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