I was going to post this with questions about it, but after writing
it, it seems only interesting to customers of BGE, namely, you two.

Arthur, you may not be interested in this, but you should know that
the 72% increase they keep talking about is only on the first line of
the bill, so it's really about a 36% increase. (a little less than
that for me last month) They said this, about being only on the first
line of the bill, at the very start of this tsimmis, 2 or 3 months
ago, but haven't said it since. But I'm sure it's true. Why doesn't
the tv news, and maybe the radio and newspaper, do a better job? Why
doesn't BGE point this out again, and again, and again?

Now you guys (on the home repair newsgroup) have me reading my old
electric bills, in Baltimore, Md, and I have one from 11 years ago
next month. It doesn't give as much info as they do now, but it gives
the meter reading -------
the dates June 21 to July 23, 1985
the units used 560
the rate schedule, R
the days used 32
the fuel cost amount included, 8.81, which is not important
and the net amount 46.24

560 is the number of KwH, right?

So 46.24/560 = 8.257 cents per KwH, right? Right.

Isn't that more than I'm paying now, which it says is 4.82 cents/kwh.
Well that number is misleading. It turns out I'm paying 0.156
cents/kwh more now. That's not very much. It's about a 2 percent
increase over 11 years. Why aren't they bragging about that?

Wouldn't it make the July 1st increase more palatable?

It seems to be 6.762 if one adds the per kwh charges together.
But the Delivery Service Customer Charge has been extracted from the
per kwh charge, and is now fixed, so that distorts things, compared to
11 years ago, when everything was proportional to the amount used.

If I take the whole bill,
40.13 and divide by 477 Kwh, I get 8.413
which is just a tiny bit more than 8.257
that I was paying in 1995

Isn't that interesting?

If my bill were greater, the fixed 7.50 charge would be spread over
more KwH, so my charge per KwH would be a little lower yet.

Now if the prices haven't gone up in 11 years, why doesn't BGE brag
about that?

My last month's bill:
Electric Details Non-Summer Rates in Effect
Residential - Schedule R, same as before.
Billing Period: Apr 18, 2006 - May 18, 2006
Days Billed: 30
Meter Read on May 18, Meter #G025460328
Current Previous kWh
Reading Reading Used
16389 15912 477

BGE Electruc Supply 477kWh x .04053000 19.33
BGE Electric Delivery Service
Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 477kWh x .02634000 12.56
State / Local Taxes & Surcharges:
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge 477kWh x .00013150 .07
Franchise Tax 477kWh x .00062000 .30
Total BGE Electric Amount $40.13

The CTC (Competitive Transition Charge) is $0.0026 per kWh
and is included in the Distribution Charge. [I don't know what this
means, but it is too small to worry about.]

BTW, my meter was changed about a year or two ago, so my usage must be
accurate, since it's the same range over 11 years, and probably much
longer. I have all my bills since 1972, but it would be a challenge
to find them, even the ones in Baltimore, since 1986.

I'm still wondering where the 72% number comes from.
When I look at my bill, I get an existing rate of about .07-.08kwh (I
don't have it in front of me).

When I look at the new rate, isn't it .115 + nusiance fees = .14kwh
(roughly), which is roughly doubling the rate, not 72%. Are you saying
that the .115 rate includes the nusiance fees? If so then it's still a
realtively cheap rate IMO.

On 6 Jun 2006 07:17:54 -0700, wrote:

I'm still wondering where the 72% number comes from.
When I look at my bill, I get an existing rate of about .07-.08kwh (I
don't have it in front of me).

When I look at the new rate, isn't it .115 + nusiance fees = .14kwh
(roughly), which is roughly doubling the rate, not 72%.

I haven't seen the new rate. (Mostly in that post, I was just
comparing 11 years ago with last month.) I"m assuming it is 72% on
the first line of the bill, because they said the increase wouldn't
apply to the distribution charge, and the two tax lines that are
calculated from the number of kwh have their own rates, so I don't
think they are being increased, and they are tiny anyhow, 7 cents and
30 cents. Oh, that's what you meant by nuisance fees. I thought you
meant there were going to be new lines on the bill, new fees, as well
as the old one.

Are you saying
that the .115 rate includes the nusiance fees?

I don't know anything about .115 . Where did you find that? In the
paper? at bge.com?

On your bill? (People with bill averaging were originally going to
start paying the increase months ago, because their averaging period
extended past June 30.)

If so then it's still a
realtively cheap rate IMO.

I don't know anything about .115 . Where did you find that? In the
paper? at bge.com?

The new rate is on your most recent bill. Again, I don't have it in
front of me, but it's close to that.

On 6 Jun 2006 10:14:11 -0700, wrote:

I don't know anything about .115 . Where did you find that? In the
paper? at bge.com?

The new rate is on your most recent bill. Again, I don't have it in
front of me, but it's close to that.

The paper bill is around here somewhere. Their webpage is amazing.
Have you seen it? It gives a window about 4 lines high to look at the
bill! One can scroll up and down. (Another four lines' worth are
unused, except for a link "FAQ" in the middle of the top line!)

So I dl'd the whole bill in pdf just now, and instead of naming the
file BGE-bill-May06.pdf or BGE-bill.pdf, they called it viewSrv .
They're in their own little world. Like I'm going to remember what
that means in a couple months. So I have to go to another program to
change the name.

Maybe we get billed on different days, because what I printed
yesterday is from my last bill, and doesn't have this new rate. My
last billing period ended on May 18. Maybe yours was after that.

Mine says:
Your Price to Compare is 4.82 cents ($.0482) per kWh.
When shopping for electric suppliers, compare this price to those
proposed by other companies. This price reflects the average
annual amount a customer on this schedule pays per
kilowatt-hour for BGE Electric Supply. [the first line of their bill]

4.82 isn't a rate on this bill or the sum of any rates, so it must be
higher than this month's rate because it averages in what they charged
me last summer when rates are higher (or what they plan to charge this
summer. I'm still on the non-summer rate through May 18, so summer
might only be 3 months long.) That's what they mean by "average
annual amount".


Tbey plan to update the billpaying part of their webpage last Sunday,
I think, so you should look at the old one soon before they get rid of
it, to see how bad it is. Used to be worse. You could pay the bill
online but the amount due stayed the same, so if looked like you
hadn't paid at all. They didn't even have text to say that the amount
was the amount of the last bill, not the amount owed. If you weren't
sure if the payment took, there was no way to check (except maybe via
your bank). But after a couple years, they recently fixed that.

4.82 isn't a rate on this bill or the sum of any rates, so it must be
higher than this month's rate because it averages in what they charged
me last summer when rates are higher (or what they plan to charge this
summer. I'm still on the non-summer rate through May 18, so summer
might only be 3 months long.) That's what they mean by "average
annual amount".

I have my bill in front of me now. Dated May 26, 2006

I have BGE Electric of $16.49, of which breaks down like this:

BGE Electric Supply: 5.03 - This is the one that's going up, I
think
Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 3.27
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge .02
Franchise Tax .08
Local Tax .22 - I live in Baltimore City

So if I calculate the $5.03 using a rate of .1103 instead of the
..0405300, I get a new bill of
124 kWh x .1103 = $13.68, bringing my total electric for a typical off
season electric to: $25.06, or an increase of $8.57, which is about an
83% rate increase.

That is typical for usage for me in a city rowhome, and I don't even
have any insulation in the walls (brick-masonry-plaster). In the
summer I do use my central air so it's more, but $5/month just for the
electricity part of the bill is about right for me at least 6 months fo
the year (and I pay much more for nusiance charges than anything else
on the bill).

Having said all of that, I will probably switch to Pepco or Washington
Gas if the rate is a little better.

On 6 Jun 2006 18:37:47 -0700, wrote:
I have my bill in front of me now. Dated May 26, 2006

I have BGE Electric of $16.49, of which breaks down like this:

BGE Electric Supply: 5.03 - This is the one that's going up, I
think
Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 3.27
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge .02
Franchise Tax .08
Local Tax .22 - I live in Baltimore City

So if I calculate the $5.03 using a rate of .1103 instead of the
.0405300, I get a new bill of
124 kWh x .1103 = $13.68, bringing my total electric for a typical off
season electric to: $25.06, or an increase of $8.57, which is about an
83% rate increase.

That is typical for usage for me in a city rowhome, and I don't even
have any insulation in the walls (brick-masonry-plaster). In the
summer I do use my central air so it's more, but $5/month just for the
electricity part of the bill is about right for me at least 6 months fo
the year (and I pay much more for nusiance charges than anything else
on the bill).

Having said all of that, I will probably switch to Pepco or Washington
Gas if the rate is a little better.

http://www.wges.com/electricity/res/ebg.php?o=wgprice compares
Washington Gas rates with BGE. It looks complicated. In fact it
looks incorrect since the second line show 10.200 non-summer and
11.556 summer for schedule R. Schedule RL-1 seems more like us, but
under BGE we're not RL-1`whatever that is.

You said the new summer rate was 11.03, not 11.556.

If you got a letter from them, the 10% discount at the top of the page
becomes 12%, but I think only for the first summer (3 months) so that
2% extra only amounts to $4.20 total if your current total electric
bill is about 40 dollars, which becomes 70.00 x 2% x 3.

I suppose if Pepco is available to you, it probably is to me and my
friend, in Randallstown and Reisterstown.

And I also read a bit about Delmarva electrci. I'm not sure if it is
an alternative, or only a company currently selling electricity. If
it's an alternative, I don't know if it only for BGE people on the
eastern shore, if there are any.


This is interesting:
When will I be switched over to WGES once I sign up?
New customers should be switched within a month or two, with the new
supplier charges appearing on the bill mailed the month following the
switch. Note: You will receive a letter from your utility notifying
you when you will be switched.

So it sounds like at this point, anyone signing up will lose the 10 or
12 percent discount for one or two months or a 3 month summer.

In Frederick County the electric comes from Allegheny Power...BUT I
just take my final bill and devide that by the number of KWH I used..
..
I forget about all those fees etc... comes out to be about 6.5 cents
KWH...and I use about 4000 of those suckers a month....bill is about
250 bucks a month....
That Rate to compare never meant much to me..the only thing I compared
was how big a check I wrote evch month...

But I though the NEW rates from BGE took effect JULY 1st... NOT NOW !

Bob G. .




On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:32:12 -0400, mm
wrote:

I was going to post this with questions about it, but after writing
it, it seems only interesting to customers of BGE, namely, you two.

Arthur, you may not be interested in this, but you should know that
the 72% increase they keep talking about is only on the first line of
the bill, so it's really about a 36% increase. (a little less than
that for me last month) They said this, about being only on the first
line of the bill, at the very start of this tsimmis, 2 or 3 months
ago, but haven't said it since. But I'm sure it's true. Why doesn't
the tv news, and maybe the radio and newspaper, do a better job? Why
doesn't BGE point this out again, and again, and again?

Now you guys (on the home repair newsgroup) have me reading my old
electric bills, in Baltimore, Md, and I have one from 11 years ago
next month. It doesn't give as much info as they do now, but it gives
the meter reading -------
the dates June 21 to July 23, 1985
the units used 560
the rate schedule, R
the days used 32
the fuel cost amount included, 8.81, which is not important
and the net amount 46.24

560 is the number of KwH, right?

So 46.24/560 = 8.257 cents per KwH, right? Right.

Isn't that more than I'm paying now, which it says is 4.82 cents/kwh.
Well that number is misleading. It turns out I'm paying 0.156
cents/kwh more now. That's not very much. It's about a 2 percent
increase over 11 years. Why aren't they bragging about that?

Wouldn't it make the July 1st increase more palatable?

It seems to be 6.762 if one adds the per kwh charges together.
But the Delivery Service Customer Charge has been extracted from the
per kwh charge, and is now fixed, so that distorts things, compared to
11 years ago, when everything was proportional to the amount used.

If I take the whole bill,
40.13 and divide by 477 Kwh, I get 8.413
which is just a tiny bit more than 8.257
that I was paying in 1995

Isn't that interesting?

If my bill were greater, the fixed 7.50 charge would be spread over
more KwH, so my charge per KwH would be a little lower yet.

Now if the prices haven't gone up in 11 years, why doesn't BGE brag
about that?

My last month's bill:
Electric Details Non-Summer Rates in Effect
Residential - Schedule R, same as before.
Billing Period: Apr 18, 2006 - May 18, 2006
Days Billed: 30
Meter Read on May 18, Meter #G025460328
Current Previous kWh
Reading Reading Used
16389 15912 477

BGE Electruc Supply 477kWh x .04053000 19.33
BGE Electric Delivery Service
Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 477kWh x .02634000 12.56
State / Local Taxes & Surcharges:
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge 477kWh x .00013150 .07
Franchise Tax 477kWh x .00062000 .30
Total BGE Electric Amount $40.13

The CTC (Competitive Transition Charge) is $0.0026 per kWh
and is included in the Distribution Charge. [I don't know what this
means, but it is too small to worry about.]

BTW, my meter was changed about a year or two ago, so my usage must be
accurate, since it's the same range over 11 years, and probably much
longer. I have all my bills since 1972, but it would be a challenge
to find them, even the ones in Baltimore, since 1986.

On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:23:56 -0400, mm
wrote:

On 6 Jun 2006 18:37:47 -0700, wrote:
I have my bill in front of me now. Dated May 26, 2006

I have BGE Electric of $16.49, of which breaks down like this:

BGE Electric Supply: 5.03 - This is the one that's going up, I
think
Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 3.27
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge .02
Franchise Tax .08
Local Tax .22 - I live in Baltimore City

So if I calculate the $5.03 using a rate of .1103 instead of the
.0405300, I get a new bill of
124 kWh x .1103 = $13.68, bringing my total electric for a typical off
season electric to: $25.06, or an increase of $8.57, which is about an
83% rate increase.

That is typical for usage for me in a city rowhome, and I don't even
have any insulation in the walls (brick-masonry-plaster). In the
summer I do use my central air so it's more, but $5/month just for the
electricity part of the bill is about right for me at least 6 months fo
the year (and I pay much more for nusiance charges than anything else
on the bill).

Having said all of that, I will probably switch to Pepco or Washington
Gas if the rate is a little better.

http://www.wges.com/electricity/res/ebg.php?o=wgprice compares
Washington Gas rates with BGE. It looks complicated. In fact it

Complicated, yes. To start off with, following up my own post, it's
not Washington Gas on that url. It's Washington Gas Engergy Services,
WGES. WG only sells gas. I called Washington Gas to find out the
rate they currently charge regular customers but they don't sell
electricity. I'm going to call Pepco tomorrow, not that so much money
is involved -- it's hard to say -- but this contrasts so much with 6
years ago, when they gave us months of notice and lots of alternative
vendors and webpages where all the rates were listed, and the first 3
I looked at were no cheaper than BGE.

This time they have a special session of the legislature, which may or
may not do something, but won't do it for a week or two.

My friend called WGES today and was only able to find out what they
would charge current BGE customers. What they currently charge other
customers might be in the other column of chart above, but that seems
to be more than what BGE charges.

They also told her that she would get the BGE summer rate -10% for
this July, August and September, and next June.

If one is a new WG customer, he can switch to WGES anytime after 30
days, but that is for gas.

looks incorrect since the second line show 10.200 non-summer and
11.556 summer for schedule R. Schedule RL-1 seems more like us, but
under BGE we're not RL-1`whatever that is.

You said the new summer rate was 11.03, not 11.556.

If you got a letter from them, the 10% discount at the top of the page
becomes 12%, but I think only for the first summer (3 months) so that
2% extra only amounts to $4.20 total if your current total electric
bill is about 40 dollars, which becomes 70.00 x 2% x 3.

I suppose if Pepco is available to you, it probably is to me and my
friend, in Randallstown and Reisterstown.

And I also read a bit about Delmarva electrci. I'm not sure if it is
an alternative, or only a company currently selling electricity. If
it's an alternative, I don't know if it only for BGE people on the
eastern shore, if there are any.


This is interesting:
When will I be switched over to WGES once I sign up?
New customers should be switched within a month or two, with the new
supplier charges appearing on the bill mailed the month following the
switch. Note: You will receive a letter from your utility notifying
you when you will be switched.

So it sounds like at this point, anyone signing up will lose the 10 or
12 percent discount for one or two months or a 3 month summer.

On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 09:25:46 -0400, Bob G.
wrote:


In Frederick County the electric comes from Allegheny Power...BUT I
just take my final bill and devide that by the number of KWH I used..

I think I heard on the radio today that either Allegheny County or
Allegheny Power hadn't had the rate increase yet. At the time I
thought they meant the County, and I still think that, but I think he
only said "Allegheny".

I forget about all those fees etc... comes out to be about 6.5 cents
KWH...and I use about 4000 of those suckers a month....bill is about
250 bucks a month....
That Rate to compare never meant much to me..the only thing I compared
was how big a check I wrote evch month...

But I though the NEW rates from BGE took effect JULY 1st... NOT NOW !

True, we're planning in advance.

Did you hear about the telegram: "Start worrying now. Details in
letter to follow."

Bob G. .

On 6 Jun 2006 18:37:47 -0700, wrote:


I have my bill in front of me now. Dated May 26, 2006

I have BGE Electric of $16.49, of which breaks down like this:

BGE Electric Supply: 5.03 - This is the one that's going up, I
think

Me too.

Customer Charge 7.50
Distribution Charge 3.27
MD Universal Svc Prog .37
State Surcharge .02
Franchise Tax .08
Local Tax .22 - I live in Baltimore City

So if I calculate the $5.03 using a rate of .1103 instead of the
.0405300, I get a new bill of
124 kWh x .1103 = $13.68, bringing my total electric for a typical off
season electric to: $25.06, or an increase of $8.57, which is about an
83% rate increase.

The dummies must be referring to an _average_ 72% increase. They
can't even go to the trouble to speak accurate English so people can
understand what's going on. And if you're right, and the rate you
quote seems to imply that you are, they're tripling the first line and
thereby almost doubling the total line. It would also mean the rate
is really going up a lot! Maybe they should do something. grin

The fight between O'malley and Ehrlich is pretty funny, since
neither's plan would lower rates, only change when they are paid,
charging interest (BGE) or penalities (Ehrlich) for paying late.
IIUC, the penalties plan had nothing to do with how much money one
actually paid late, so a small customer would pay equivalent to an
enormous intererst rate.

This still doesn't explain how come the rate for me only went up 2%
total in the last 11 years. Why don't they emphasize that.

That is typical for usage for me in a city rowhome, and I don't even
have any insulation in the walls (brick-masonry-plaster). In the
summer I do use my central air so it's more, but $5/month just for the
electricity part of the bill is about right for me at least 6 months fo
the year (and I pay much more for nusiance charges than anything else
on the bill).

Having said all of that, I will probably switch to Pepco or Washington
Gas if the rate is a little better.

My friend in Reisterstown got a letter from Washington Gas. Maybe I
did too. I'm wondering if they ship the electricity all the way from
Washington, won't it be cold and weak when it gets here? And what
about the extra shipping charges.