Breakdown of the Monthly Rates

To make electricity costs as transparent as possible, electric bills in Concord contain line items that show the component costs of bringing power to local homes and businesses. The process called "unbundling" provides a clear view of the factors that go into your bill.
  
The line items show charges related to wholesale power costs along with costs to operate our Town-owned electric system. For more information, go to https://concordma.gov/528/Rates.
 
Below are the items you will see on your bill:
 
Meter Charge: The cost of billing, customer service, and administration to service your account whether you use energy or not.

Energy Charge: The cost of buying energy from suppliers; the cost to have a generator produce a kWh for anyone in Concord.

Capacity and Transmission Charge: The cost associated with the availability and reliability of generators and wires on the New England Grid.

Distribution Charge: The cost to bring energy to your home over Concord's wires after it has traveled on the New England grid.

Other line items on your bill include: 

Rate Stabilization Fund: All residential and business customers are subject to this temporary charge or credit when in effect. This fund is used to offset anticipated significant wholesale rate increases. Funds are collected from all customers over a period, and then paid back to customers to avoid a steep increase. 

New York Power Authority Credit (NYPA): This credit is based upon savings realized by purchasing hydroelectric power from the New York Power Authority. Under Federal Law, this savings is passed only to residential customers. Note: The power consumed by residential customers is more than 20% green about half of which is purchased from the New York Power Authority.

Power Cost Adjustment (PCA): CMLP buys its electricity from generating sources such as natural gas, land fill gas, solar, and hydro. Costs associated with each source can fluctuate dramatically. The PCA is used at times when needed to adjust for increases or decreases in wholesale power and transmission costs (representing about 80% of CMLP costs) and to ensure costs are revenue neutral to CMLP. 

Underground Surcharge: The Underground Surcharge is a 1.5% fee based on the total bill used to help offset the cost of placing existing overhead wires underground. Under-grounding all utilities in Concord is a Town bylaw. 

Residential Service Rate

Here is a breakdown example of the monthly Residential Service charges (effective January 1, 2023) on your electric bill:
  
Service Charge (Meter Charge)

• $18.50 per month

Energy Charge

• $0.08980 per kWh

Capacity and Transmission Charge 

• Tier 1–first 657 kWhs @ $0.0.04107 per kWh
• Tier 2–next 178 kWhs @ $0.05340 per kWh
• Tier 3– more than 835 kWhs @ $0.07706 per kWh

Distribution charge

• $0.06033 per kWh