Example For-Profit Bill (shown)
This is an actual copy of a municipal customer’s monthly invoice for a single electric meter from a for-profit electricity provider.
At top, you see the same basic billing and account information that you would see on your Gexa bill from TCAP.
The grid shows usage by ESD ID number or meter ID.
It shows the number of days in the billing cycle, the previous meter read and the current meter read for the actual kWh or KW usage.
Moving down you see an Energy “Fixed” price of 4.11925 cents/kWh.
And, yes, TCAP’s price may look higher... but let’s investigate further the difference between their “fixed price” and TCAP’s fixed all-in fixed price.
Fixed price means fixed... right?
Directly under this, the line item says other charges - November Anc Serv. This line item is not calculated.
So, even though this month it is 0.00045/kWh, it could change next month depending on... what?
Depending on what they want to charge.
Market Securitization (Debt) Financing is listed by law per the State Legislature for transparency’s sake and varies by provider.
This provider’s debt financing is 0.00070.
TCAP’s is 0.00061.
Other ERCOT charges that can vary monthly: Incremental AS Charges for example. Here it adds 0.0004/kwh. Adding this plus the marketing securitizaiton together makes the new “fixed” rate 0.0420425 for this month.
Again, these line items can fluctuate, making the for-profit’s true “Fixed” price higher.
Storm Recover Charge & Recover Tax Credit are not part of any tariff.
It appears this provider is hiding additional costs inside these, upping their total fixed cost to 0.04365 per kWh.
Contract language fine print can hide provisions that allow this. So “fixed” does not mean a true, all-in per kWH rate.
