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jca2's avatar

Where you live, has the cost of people's bills for electricity gone up a lot?

Asked by jca2 (16268points) February 8th, 2023

I live in NY and there are many posts in local Facebook groups about rising rates for power. I’m also in a bunch of Facebook groups for Connecticut (since I live near the border) and same thing, everyone complaining about their bills for power.

I attended a meeting in CT where someone pointed out that the CEO of the power company in CT makes 20 million. I googled it and it’s correct.

People in my area are saying they were paying 150 – 200 a month and now it’s over 1k per month.

I don’t know how it’s going to be do-able for some people on a limited income, unless they live in a housing project or other apartment that’s income based.

How is it where you live?

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27 Answers

Dutchess_III's avatar

Yes. Part of the reason is we have to pay back into the energy grid. So we have our regular bill and that payback thing which is as much as our bill.

janbb's avatar

Mine has not gone up significantly that I’ve noticed.

@Dutchess_III What is that “payback thing”?

KNOWITALL's avatar

My highest bill is almost always in February and is $423. I’m not complaining since I keep the house at 65.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I don’t really know @janbb. It’s carried as an “energy adjustment.” I called and asked but didn’t really understand the explanation, probably because the poor gal trying to explain it didn’t understand it either.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Our natural gas costs have gone up, so both electricity and natural gas prices have gone up. We has “gas pack” furnace. We pay on a budget which is an average cost per month calculated by the utility company that covers both.
So far they will owe me two weeks at the September “balance out”, which means they may owe four or five weeks, when we get to September..

gondwanalon's avatar

Power rate stayed the say here in Tacoma. We don’t have natural gas so we use more electricity. Electric bill runs about $350 per month during winter months.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@gondwanalon Not bad, trade ya? I supplement with propane space heaters made for indoor use.

JLeslie's avatar

Yes! Although, I noticed that mine went back down a little, so I was going to check what exactly is happening with the charges. When it went way up initially it was one specific charge on the bill, I can look at the breakdown over the weekend and come back to the Q to let you know what changed.

Mine went from ranging $85—$100 a month to $95—$150 a month. My house is all electric, no gas.

Someone told me there is actually competition for electricity. Supposedly, you can get electricity from other carriers. I don’t know how it works. Some sort of deregulation. I wonder if it’s true.

Forever_Free's avatar

It has not gone up like other things have over the past 10 years in my area of the US.

filmfann's avatar

Where i live, we use PG&E for electricity, and propane for heat.
Costs for each of these seemed to have doubled.

kritiper's avatar

Power and gas have gone up some. Less than 10%.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@JLeslie That would be wonderful. Here it is still divided up like pie, we have no choice at the local level at all.

They did say we had to pay more for other areas, like the Texas ice storm, too. Not cool Liberty Electric.

Dutchess_III's avatar

That’s what I heard too @KNOWITALL. That we’re paying for power outages in other parts of the country in months past.
But I heard that from my son. Where’d you hear it from?

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Dutchess_III The company sent an email or had it on the website, where I pay the bill. They certainly were open about it. Sorry you got it too, we’re likely on some of the same grid, neighbor.

JLeslie's avatar

@KNOWITALL I need to research it. As far as I know I just have the one choice.

I googled and found this: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=627&t=3

And this: https://www.energybot.com/blog/how-to-switch-electric-companies.html

I’ve said for years the reason I want solar for my house is so I can be independent from the grid. What is to stop energy companies from raising prices except regulation and laws, and a lot of Americans put up a fuss and are against regulations. That’s also part of the reason I’m against nuclear power, just another centralized system that could raise prices. Plus, the radioactive waste.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Yeah @KNOWITALL. Don’t mess with Texas. Are they going to help us when we need it?

Acrylic's avatar

Mine hasn’t, anyway.

Jons_Blond's avatar

We rent and all utilities are included but I have heard from neighbors about the increase. This is also the reason why our rent increased by $125 per month.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

about double here.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Electricity is still about $0.15 per kWh. But, heating oil has almost doubled – $5.70 per gallon. If I didn’t have wood burning stoves it would cost about $4000 to heat my home this winter.
Because I’m a bit lazy and traveling occasionally, I’ll use some oil, some electricity and some wood so it will cost me about $2000 for the season.

SnipSnip's avatar

Mine has gone down. I don’t know about anyone else.

zenvelo's avatar

I have gas heat and my PG&E bill is way up from last fall. And electricity is up too, because they are now passing through the cost of rebuilding what was damaged from fires caused by downed power lines.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Latest bill show gas cost per unit has gone way up.

Blame on Putin and war to reunite the USSR

SQUEEKY2's avatar

Not really but our natural gas bills have gone out of control.
Our home uses gas for hot water and heating our bill for a cold winter month used to be around $80 canadian ,now it’s around $220 it all these fees the gas company has tacked on, delivery, transport, <in a pipeline? and storage,not to mention a carbon tax .

RocketGuy's avatar

In our area, the cost of natural gas is up a good amount. Combined with the cold weather, people (like myself) who use gas for water heating and space heating are getting hammered. I’m sure electricity is up too, but my big hitter is the A/C (which I haven’t used in months).

KNOWITALL's avatar

@RocketGuy That’s interesting. My AC use barely affects my bill.

RocketGuy's avatar

My A/C makes my electric meter spin like a top! It’s a 25+ year old unit sized to cool a 1200 sq ft house.

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