You may notice an increase to your home's energy cost this month. Your standard residential bill is comprised of three billing components. The first is the monthly customer charge of $7.77, second is the kWh charge (energy consumed and measured by the meter) and lastly a Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) charge. The monthly customer charge and kilowatt-hour charges have remained the same since October 2007. The FCA charge will fluctuate from one month to another. The increase you may notice could be one or both of two things - the first, a higher Fuel Cost Adjustment charge assessed that particular month, and second, an increase in your homes energy consumption.
Prior to August, 2010, Waterville customers only paid a monthly customer charge and kWh charge for energy they consumed. However, energy costs have risen, primarily due to the fuel costs of generation. Waterville had absorbed these costs passed on to us by our power supplier. This year, it became economically necessary to implement the fuel cost adjustment, FCA, on all Waterville electric accounts to recover these costs. The FCA is a pass-through charge that is unknown from one month to another.
In fairness to all Waterville utility customers, the additional charge from our power supplier is divided by total kWh sold. This factor represents the FCA. Therefore, the FCA you see is calculated by multiplying the FCA factor by the kWh's you consumed for a specific billing period.
The Waterville City Council believes that the fairest and most equitable way to spread these increased costs from our power supplier to our customers is to base it upon kWh consumption.