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Residential Electric Bills: Defined

What is “base service?”
The base service is a fixed monthly charge designed to evenly distribute costs BrightRidge incurs when providing electric service to customers. Examples of charges that are incurred are: meter reading, maintaining customer records, capital and maintenance costs, etc. In other words, whether customers use electricity or not it costs to provide electric service to each and every customer. All customers (i.e. residential, commercial, and industrial) are charged a base service.

 

What is “kWh charge?”
The kWh charge is the total amount of electricity your household consumes. For example, the kWh charge is the cost of the electricity used to power all your electric appliances; such as, heating and cooling systems, water heating, televisions, lighting, washers and dryers, refrigerators and freezers, and other miscellaneous appliances.

Electricity is measured via a meter on the side of your home in kWh units. A watt is a basic measure of electricity. A kilowatt is one-thousand watts. For example, a 100-watt light bulb used for 10 hours equals one kilowatt-hour.

 

What is "FCA charge?"
Each month TVA implements a Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) that can fluctuate with TVA’s fuel and purchased power costs. Therefore, electric rates may increase or decrease slightly based on the amount TVA pays for fuel and purchased power. 

 

What is "DCRA?"
The Demand Cost Recovery Adjustment (DCRA) is an adjustment applicable to kWh usage based on the prior month's wholesale power rates paid to TVA. The adjustment accounts for changes in peak demand charges which are impacted by weather and customer usage behaviors. BrightRidge's peak demand to TVA is computed on the single highest one hour of usage during the wholesale period. BrightRidge will use a load factor calculation to determine the applicable rate, which may be a charge or credit. The DCRA rate is applicable to residential Rate 22 and small commercial Rate 40 for consumed energy (kWh).