Understand Your Bill

What is the Facil­i­ties Charge?

This is a recur­ring month­ly charge that recov­ers the fixed cost of pro­vid­ing elec­tric­i­ty to your home or busi­ness. It includes the oper­a­tional expens­es of the coop­er­a­tive that are shared equal­ly by each class of ser­vice, which does not vary with the amount of elec­tric­i­ty you use. It recov­ers some of the costs relat­ed to rights-of-way main­te­nance, meter­ing, billing, account­ing, and oth­er expens­es for the coop­er­a­tive. On some util­i­ty bills, you may see these charges iden­ti­fied as a Cus­tomer Charge, Basic Ser­vices Charge, or sim­i­lar name.

What is the Ener­gy Charge?

This is the mea­sure­ment of the amount of elec­tric­i­ty sup­plied dur­ing the billing cycle and it is expressed as kilo­watt-hours or kWh. Ten 100-watt light bulbs burn­ing for one hour will con­sume 1,000 watt hours or 1 kilo­watt-hour.

The elec­tric meter at your home mea­sures the amount of ener­gy used in kWh between month­ly meter read­ings. This read­ing is very much like the odome­ter on a car which mea­sures miles trav­eled.

What is a Pow­er Cost Adjust­ment?

This can either be a charge or a cred­it. It is the dif­fer­ence between the actu­al cost of pro­duc­ing a kilo­watt-hour and Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s pub­lished base rate. The actu­al cost varies (usu­al­ly frac­tions of a cent) due to fluc­tu­a­tions in the whole­sale cost of pow­er caused by changes in fuel costs, the gen­er­a­tion mix, and whole­sale mar­ket prices for elec­tric­i­ty. It is an approved method for track­ing the actu­al cost of pro­duc­ing elec­tric­i­ty with­out over- or under-col­lect­ing rev­enue from the mem­bers.

Why is a deposit required to con­nect my ser­vice?

If you have not yet estab­lished cred­it with Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, you may be asked to pay a secu­ri­ty deposit. Your cred­it his­to­ry, obtained con­fi­den­tial­ly through a cred­it-report­ing agency, is used to deter­mine how much of a deposit, if any, is nec­es­sary. The max­i­mum ini­tial deposit is $340.00.

Are there oth­er times when a deposit may be required?

A deposit may also be required at the time of a delin­quent dis­con­nect. When a ser­vice is dis­con­nect­ed for non-pay­ment, a deposit equal to 2 1/2 times the member’s aver­age month­ly bill may be required.

Is there a way to avoid pay­ing a deposit?

Yes! Ask about our Advance Pay accounts – no bills, no deposit, no late fees. You pay as you go by phone, our web por­tal, or in per­son. You receive text alerts noti­fy­ing you of your bal­ance so you know when to add mon­ey to your account.