Fairness and affordability go hand-in-hand.
Customer electric bills are based on both energy usage and the energy providers’ cost of providing electric service, also known as fixed costs. This includes the cost of the fuels used to generate electricity and the cost to transport and deliver the electricity to the customer. Costs also include the maintenance of the electrical grid, as well as utility programs for low-income assistance, energy efficiency, environmental improvements, and other public benefits.
All users of the electrical infrastructure should pay their fair share of the fixed costs of the grid, since it delivers both reliable power when they need it and a platform to transport excess energy.
When customers do not pay their fair share, the fixed costs of the grid remain the same. Those fixed costs are then covered by a smaller number of customers making electricity more costly for everyone else.
