Member bills contain a section called “Current Service Detail” where charges for the billing period are listed as line items, then totaled on the bottom line.
The following explanations are an effort to help members better understand the components in this section.
For many years, the section of the bill listing charges contained a single line item called the Energy Charge. This line represented all costs associated with receiving power from Claiborne Electric. In an effort to increase transparency and line the billing language up with the tariffs approved by the Louisiana Public Service Commission, the Energy Charge has been broken into “Net Monthly Rate” and “Power Cost Adjustment” on bills.
Net Monthly Rate is the line item that includes the monthly service charge and the energy charge. The monthly service charge is the fixed monthly fee that covers the cost of being connected to Claiborne Electric’s system. This charge helps cover expenses such as electric metering, maintenance, billing, and payment processing – monthly functions that do not fluctuate with a member’s energy usage. The energy charge is the portion of a member’s bill that is associated with the expenses of operating the Cooperative each month. This charge is calculated per kilowatt-hour, and is a little more than three cents per kilowatt-hour.
The next line item, the Power Cost Adjustment, is based on the wholesale power contract between Claiborne electric and our power provider – 1803 Electric Cooperative. This line item is the bulk of a member’s cost for electricity. This charge represents the cost of generating power on a monthly basis, and is also calculated per kilowatt-hour. This charge varies slightly from month to month and is driven by the price of the fuels used to generate the electricity purchased by the co-op. The Power Cost Adjustment is typically around eight cents per kilowatt-hour.
Members who have questions about bills are urged to speak with one of our Member Service Representatives by calling our Homer office at (318)927-3504 or our Farmerville office at (318)368-3011.
We have developed the following graphic to help members understand the line items on their bills.
