Georgia Power Price per Kilowatt-Hour

I am looking at getting some solar panels and considering Georgia Power’s Community Solar program, but in order to do that, I need to know how much my electricity really costs, specifically if I save a kilowatt-hour, how much do I save in money? My bill in May was $45.95 for 176 kwh, a very low amount because I wasn’t heating or cooling the house very much. You could take the bill amount and divide by the 176 kwh to get a price per kwh of 26 cents per kwh and conclude that a 165 kwh reduction would save me $42.90. That would be completely wrong. Instead most of the bill, $35.42, is a line item called “Current Service,” but even that is not directly proportional to usage. I found a site at the Georgia Public Service Commission that can calculate a Georgia Power bill and break it down more clearly. First, there are different rates for Winter and Summer, with Summer (June to September) being higher, so May is considered Winter. Current Service actually consists of several different items, the first of which is the Base Charge and it is based only on the number of days in the billing period, so for me that was $13.35 for 29 days. The second is Tier 1 Component, the amount charged for the electricity up to 650 kwh. For me this amount was $28.51. There are other tiers above 650 kwh per month, but I almost never go above that. In Summer, Tier 2 is significantly more expensive, but in Winter Tiers 2 and 3 are the same rate as Tier 1. These two combined are called the Base Bill. The key take away is that for this month a third of that amount is not based on power consumption at all, just the price of being a customer. Next is a Fuel Cost Recovery Rider, which is based on the amount of kwh used, basically just a way of increasing the cost of electricity by 4.3 cents per kwh. For me this was $8.07. The last piece of Current Service is called Demand Side Management Residential Rider, a long name for a small fee of 35 cents, based on the Base Bill amount. Those 4 together are Current Service.

The monthly bill has other line items besides Current Service. First is the Simple Solar program, where they charge me 1.25 cents per kwh that I used, for a total of $2.22. Next is the Environmental Compliance Cost, which again is based on the Base Bill amount that is a hidden part of Current Service, and came out to $3.64. Then there is a Municipal Franchise Fee of $1.27 which is based on the total of Current Service, Environmental Compliance, and Simple Solar. My fee is a little higher because I live within city limits. The last item on the bill is Sales Tax of $3.42. If I take 8% of all of the fees combined, I am a penny or two lower than their amount, so maybe there is some weird rounding thing going on. I was able to track down all of the fees on Georgia Power’s website for seasonal residential rates, and of course do a spreadsheet to make sure I am getting everything right, which I am except for sales tax for some reason. The PSC web page worksheet doesn’t include the Simple Solar program or its impact on other fees and sales taxes, but Simple Solar is totally based on consumption, but otherwise breaks everything down really well including all of the Georgia Power rates to 4 decimal places.