Electric Department
502 Carroll, Ames, IA 50010
Customer Service 515 Clark Ave., Ames, IA 50010
Phone:
(515) 239-5120
How to
Calculate Your Electric Costs
Residential Rate
Large Power (Industrial) Rate
The General Power electric rate is available to all customers except those that qualify for another rate schedule, for all single-phase or three-phase, single metered usage, where the meter demand does not exceed 50 Kw.
The General Power electric rate is made up of three components: The Service Charge, the Energy Charge, and the Energy Cost Adjustment (ECA).
Service Charge - The service charge is a fixed fee
each month and is also the minimum bill amount. The monthly service charge for General
Power customers is $5.20.
Energy Charge - The energy charge is the amount you pay for each kilowatt hour that
you use. The rate is broken up into three blocks with the rate per kilowatt hour declining
with each higher block of consumption. The rate per kilowatt hour (kWh) is also different
for summer and winter:
| Summer | Winter | |
| First 2000 kWh | 8.49¢ per kWh | 6.62¢ per kWh |
| Next 5000 kWh | 7.25¢ per kWh | 5.49¢ per kWh |
| Over 7000 kWh | 7.04¢ per kWh | 5.28¢ per kWh |
The summer rate is in effect for utility bills that are
mailed on or between July 1 and October 31. This means that the summer rate would normally
apply to electricity consumed from June through September. The remaining eight months are
billed at the winter rate.
Energy Cost Adjustment (ECA) - The ECA is a component that allows the utility to reflect fluctuations in the cost of fuel for the power plant without frequently changing the standard energy charges shown above. When rates were set in 1987, a base fuel cost was projected. The ECA is simply the difference between actual fuel costs for the past twelve months and the projected base fuel cost. Contracts for coal have increased and this is reflected in the current ECA. For the month of January, 2008 the ECA was $.0169 per kWh.
If a business consumed 10,500 kWh during the month of May,
the electric cost would be calculated using the winter rate as shown above:
| Service Charge | $ 5.20 |
| First 2000 kWh X $.0662 | $ 132.40 |
| Next 5000 kWh X $.0549 | $ 274.50 |
| Remaining 3500 kWh X $.0528 | $ 184.80 |
| ECA=10,500 kWh X $.0169 | $ 177.45 |
| Total Cost: | $ 774.35 |