What contributes most to your utility bills? Usage or the Delivery cost?
- Thread starter Arjun
- Start date
Techie007L
Getting the hang of it
@Arjun Cool device featured in that video! Supply (a.k.a. Generation) and Delivery (a.k.a. Transmission) have been near 50/50 for years where I'm at, seemingly randomly alternating which one is slightly ahead of the other. Many seem not to understand that Delivery isn't a fee ("fixed sum of money paid in exchange for a service, a privilege, or professional labor"), but rather the retail markup ("the amount added to the cost of a product or service to determine its final selling price") on the amount of electricity you used, while Supply is merely the wholesale cost the utility paid for the electricity you used. As such, both figures will move up or down proportionally to the amount of electricity you used in a given month (note that there is usually a base fee included in Delivery that will cause it to appear farther ahead when you use very little electricity). Some utility companies charge high delivery rates and others charge low delivery rates (often subject to regulatory approval). The reason the two figures are separated (instead of presented as a single figure like we see with most other purchase transactions) is due to Electric Choice, where you can change your supplier. Changing the supplier will change your supply rate, but not your delivery rate. Your actual electric rate is the amount billed for the month divided by the kWh used that month.
