CEO March Message - 2022

In previous magazines, HCE has provided information on Demand Rate/Metering. For informational purposes, HCE is going to start displaying a kW Demand component on your monthly bill. It will appear side by side with your Monthly Usage if you are a Residential, Annual or Small Commercial account.

What is Demand?

Simply put, energy is the amount of power you consume, while demand measures your impact on the grid to deliver that power. Demand refers to the maximum amount of electrical power that is being consumed at a given time, as opposed to energy which is the amount of power used over a period of time.

Example – Energy (kWh) would be what is recorded on your car’s odometer (total miles). Demand is like your speedometer – measuring the speed at which energy flows. The demand charge is your highest recorded “miles-per-hour” speed that month.

How is it calculated?

The meter monitors demand over a 15-minute period. The meter records the highest 15-minute average that occurs each month. At the end of every billing period, the demand is reset to zero and the meter starts over, recording the highest 15-minute average for the next billing period. The kW demand line item that will appear on your monthly bill represents the 15-minute interval with the highest amount of electricity used during that billing month – measured in kilowatts (kW).

What is included in the Detail of Charges on my bill?

Monthly Recurring Charge (also called a base charge) - Designed to recover monthly costs associated with running the Cooperative. Included but not limited to, administration, metering, billing, and customer accounting. It also includes a portion of the distribution plant costs to recover for the poles and wires that bring power to you the member.

kWh Charges - We break your bill into two kWh charges called Delivery and Energy.

Delivery Charge - This charge covers the additional investments of meters, wires, poles, transformers, property taxes, substations, and other items needed to provide the electricity. It is also used to help recover maintenance cost.

Energy kWh Charge - It is used to recover the cost of energy purchased by the Cooperative to serve its members' energy requirements.