Residential Electric Bill

There are two charges that combined equal the total electric charges on the monthly utility invoices. Each electric service’s usage is billed based on kilowatt-hour “kWh” consumption. The first charge listed on monthly invoices is the ELECTRIC charge. The second charge is listed on the utility invoice as PPA (Purchased Power Adjustment). Electric rates charged by the BPU to our customers are approved and regulated by the New York State Public Service Commission. The last electric rate increase was in 2004.

Electric Charge
Each and every residential electric customer is charged a Service Charge of $2.32 per month regardless of the amount of kWh used on a monthly basis. In addition, each residential electric customer is charged a set amount for each kWh of electricity used. For residential electric customers the BPU currently charges $0.0278* (2.78 cents) per kWh of electricity used in any given month. As an example, the ELECTRIC charge for a residential customer using 490 kWh of electric in a month would be as follows: Service Charge of $2.32 plus kWh charge ($0.0278 x 490kWh) of $13.622. The total ELECTRIC Charge for 490kWh of electric would be $15.942. This portion of your electric bill is used to pay for the Board of Public Utilities cost of operation. This charge pays to purchase wire, transformers, poles, vehicle purchases, fuel etc. The ELECTRIC charge also pays for all employee costs. *The Department of Public Service last approved a City of Salamanca Board of Public Utilities rate increase on 06/01/2022.

PPA Charge
The Purchase Power Adjustment charge fluctuates monthly. The PPA charge is the total dollar cost to purchase electricity for all Board of Public Utilities customers divided by the total kWh’s purchased by the Board of Public Utilities. The PPA charges include the cost to both purchase and transmit electric to the BPU’s electric system. Each electric customer pays a PPA charge every month. PPA charges have been on all electric utility bills since December of 1979.