August 2022 Utility Rates Newsletter

IMPORTANT MONTHLY UPDATES & ANNOUNCEMENTS

We are excited to announce that several new rate options are now readily available for some of our most popular utilities in the deregulated states of Illinois and Texas. Below we highlight which rates have been added and provide video walkthroughs on how users can utilize these rates most effectively. 

Illinois Utilities - Commonwealth Edison & Ameren

Over the years, our team has created a multitude of custom rates for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison (ComEd). Rates under these utilities were created per request up until now for two reasons: the extent of deregulation of the market, and the various additional charges per customer based on location and/or applicability criteria. Many electric consumers in deregulated markets opt to contract with a third-party supplier (TPS) for the generation portion of their bill, resulting in different supply charges than those of full-service utility customers. In addition, both Ameren and ComEd may be subject to Franchise Fees and/or Municipal Taxes depending on where they reside.  

Due to the continued large number of requests our team receives for rates under these utilities, we decided to create rate options that are readily available for our users. The global rates added include the charges that are applicable to all utility customers and omit any charges that may vary. The addition of these rates enables our users to quickly access up-to-date Ameren and ComEd rates which can then be copied and edited as custom rates as needed. Below is a list of the new global rates: 

Our team created a video guide to help our users in gain awareness of specifics to look for when working with bills from these utilities. The video guide additionally details each step users should take in order to capitalize on the above rates most effectively.  

Texas Utilities - Oncor, CenterPoint, & AEP

There are now global rates available in our database under three Texas utilities including Oncor, CenterPoint Energy, and AEP Texas Central Company. These utilities do not offer full-service rate options. Therefore, customers must contract with electric retailers who provide the supply portion of their electric service. The global rates we created for these Texas utilities include the distribution charges applicable to all customers; however, we included a placeholder supply charge that requires editing to account for customer-specific third-party supply charges. The following video provides a walkthrough of one of our new Oncor global rates, referencing bills to demonstrate how an ETB Developer user can easily copy and edit one of our global rates. 

We understand the complexities that rates in deregulated energy markets can present and encourage our users to reach out to our team atutilityraterequests@energytoolbase.com with any questions! 

Rate Increase - El Paso Electric

El Paso Electric (EPE) customers will see several new rate riders present on their bills due to a delayed rate case filing that is now going into effect. While the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved this rate case back in November 2021, the implementation of these rate changes was delayed until August 2022.  

Customers will notice the addition of the following riders beginning with this month’s billing: 

• Rate Case Expense Surcharge (RCES) 
• Excess Accumulated Deferred Income Tax Credit (EADIT) 
• Covid-19 Asset Surcharge 
• Retiring Plant Rider Factor (RPRF) 

To make way for these new riders, El Paso Electric’s existing Transmission Cost Recovery Factor, Distribution Cost Recovery Factor, Federal Tax Credit, and Supplemental Franchise Fee riders were all set to $0. Overall, these base rate changes are designed to allow EPE to collect an additional $69.7 million in revenue. The average residential customer can expect a bill increase of about 7%. 

Along with the four new riders, an additional rider will be implemented in the coming months that is designed to recover lost revenue caused by the delay. Some customers will receive refunds for any overcollection by EPE, while other customers will experience an additional surcharge to collect any missing revenue due to under-collection. The EPE rates in our database include all recent changes and will be updated as additional changes are implemented. 

Did You Know? – National Grid Rhode Island is now known as… 

The PPL Corporation officially bought out National Grid in Rhode Island, which will now be referred to as “Rhode Island Energy.” The acquisition comes after extensive regulatory review which will allow for a seamless transition from National Grid to the new parent company. The review found that PPL should be able to assume all the services that National Grid provided but at a lower operating cost. This means that the only change customers should see is a new name at the top of their bills with no immediate change to their rate schedules or accompanied charges. In the ETB Developer platform, users will find that the former utility “National Grid – Rhode Island” has been renamed “Rhode Island Energy (Formerly National Grid – Rhode Island).”