Statement Date – The date that the bill was printed.
Due Date – The date that the amount owing is due. If the retailer receives the amount after the due date, a late payment fee will be assessed.
Site Id – All metered sites are given a unique site id number which identifies the location of the site.
Billing Period – The time period covered for the current charges on the utility statement. Typically the statement will indicate the start and end date of the billing period.
Total Consumption – The total amount of energy used in the billing period in either Gigajoules (GJ) for natural gas or Kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity. The amount of consumption is determined from the meter reads obtained by the distribution company. Consumption can be either estimated or based on an actual meter read.
Energy (Retailer) Charges – The sum of the cost of energy consumed in the billing period and the retailer’s costs for billing and customer services.
Energy (commodity) Charges – The cost of energy consumed in the billing period. The amount is calculated by multiplying the consumption used in a month, either Gigajoules (GJ) for natural gas or Kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity, by the commodity rate for that particular month. The billing period will typically overlap months, and therefore the consumption is split amongst the months if the rate changes monthly, and the appropriate rate is applied to each portion of consumption over the billing period.
Rider – Riders can be placed on the Energy or the Distribution portion of bills. Rate riders are a temporary surcharge or refund to be applied to all customers in a given rate class for a defined period of time.
Administration Charge – The retailer’s charges for providing billing and customer services.
Distribution (Delivery) Charges – Charges that recover the distribution company’s cost of delivering energy to customers. This includes things such as meter reading and the costs of building, operating and maintaining the distribution system. The distribution charges are billed to the retailer by the distribution company and then are passed on to the customer on the retailer bill.
Fixed Charge – Fixed Distribution charges recover costs to the distribution company that do not vary depending on usage. They can be billed based on a fixed monthly charge when bills are issued monthly. However since billing periods can be more or less than a month, a fixed charge can be pro-rated. Rates for fixed charges are often based on a daily rate so the fixed charge would be based on that rate multiplied by the number of days in the billing period.
Variable Charge - A variable charge is based on how much energy was delivered to the site, so the level of a variable charge will vary depending on how much energy was used in the billing period.
Municipal Franchise Fee/Local Access Fee – This fee is billed on behalf of some municipalities through a franchise agreement with the distribution company. It is designed to recover the fee paid by the distributor to the municipality for the use of public right-of-way land. The amount of the fee will vary between municipalities.
Meter Number – The unique number on the meter installed on the premise.
Meter Reads – Distributors use the meter readings they obtain to calculate their delivery charges. The distributor sends their delivery charges and the consumption information to the retailer so that the retailer is able to accurately bill customers the distributor’s delivery charges and the retailer’s energy charges.
- Electric Meters
Electric distributors are required to make reasonable attempts to obtain an actual meter reading bi-monthly. While attempts are made to read the meter every two months, distributors are required to obtain an actual meter reading at least twice a year at sites where consumption is metered.
- Natural Gas Meters
Frequency of natural gas meter reads depends on the meter reading costs approved by the AUC in the in the course of rate hearings. Natural Gas distributors typically attempt to read meters monthly or bi-monthly.
Customers can contact their distribution company for more information on reading their own meter and submitting them to the distributor.
Actual vs. Estimate Reads - If an actual meter read was obtained the bill will typically indicate that it was an “Actual Read”. If an actual meter reading was not obtained, the bill may indicate this as an “Estimate”. When a meter reading is not available for a billing period, the consumption can be estimated for that period of time, taking into consideration historical consumption for the site and seasonality. Once an actual meter read is obtained, the estimate and associated billing will be adjusted.
Total Consumption Between Meter Reads – The total consumption of the energy commodity between the two meter reads obtained by the distributor. It is calculated by subtracting the most current meter read from the previous one. If the billing period does not align with the meter reads, the retailer is able to estimate additional consumption not included in the meter reads.