Electricity Rate Hikes Hit Home
Brace yourself: Southern California Edison Co. has begun mailing redesigned bills to customers that reflect the electricity rate increases recently ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The new bills for residential customers will unveil a five-tier rate structure tied to baseline usage, an allotment set by the PUC that equals 50% to 60% of average household use.
Those who keep usage to 130% of baseline will see no increase, but those who exceed 130% will pay more based on how much more they use.
SCE, the utility arm of Rosemead-based Edison International, has said that half its residential customers exceed 130% of baseline each month. The PUC has estimated that such customers will see their average monthly bills rise $4 to $71.
Business customers also will receive bigger bills as early as this week, depending on their billing cycle.
Edison’s computers began figuring in the new rates as of June 3--averaging 3 cents more per kilowatt-hour for all customers--and the amount of the increase shown on the bill will be phased in over the next month.
That is, a bill calculated June 4 would contain only one day at the higher rates, with the balance of the bill figured at the old rates. A bill calculated June 5 would contain two days at the higher rates.
Because the increase is retroactive to March 27, customers will be back-billed for the uncollected portion over 12 months. That portion will not appear separately on the bill. Instead, it will be calculated into the higher rates over the next year, Edison said.
Also among the items debuting on the June bill is a feature to help customers determine how likely they are to suffer a power blackout. Each bill will show which group the customer is in, and Edison’s Web site (https://www.sce.com) will tell customers which groups are slated next for blackouts once the state’s electrical grid operator issues a warning notice that blackouts are possible in the subsequent 24 hours.
Pacific Gas & Electric, a unit of PG&E; Corp., is also sending out its first bills with the new rates; the utility already includes outage group numbers in its bills. Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is adding outage group numbers to its bills this month, but that utility has not yet been granted a rate increase.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Juicing Up Power Bills
Southern California Edison has begun mailing new residential electricity bills that reflect the higher rates and conservation-inducing rate structure that recently was ordered by the California Public Utilities Commission. Here is a sample of the first page of the new bill. This shows which circuit group the customer has been assigned to for blackoutpurposes.
Edison’s Web site (www.sce.com) will tell customers what groups will be blacked out next.
New five-tier structure: The more you use, the more you pay.
Customers who use 20% less energy get a 20% credit.
