Your Electric Bill

You must pay your electric bill in a timely fashion in order to receive continuous electric service. The basic form of your electric bill will contain common elements regardless of which company provides your electric service.

The bill must include:

  1. The meter reading at the beginning and end of the service period for which the bill is rendered;
  2. The dates of the billing period;
  3. The quantity and kinds of units metered;
  4. The applicable rate schedule or identification of the applicable rate schedule;
  5. The total amount of the bill;
  6. The word “estimate”, if the bill is an estimated bill;
  7. If used, any conversion factors necessary to convert meter reading units to billing units;
  8. If used, any multiplier used to determine billing units; and
  9. A comparison of the average daily kilowatt hour consumption for the billing period and for the previous month and the previous calendar year.

 

Other items that you may see on your electric bill are:

  1. energy cost, purchased power, and RBA rate adjustments;
  2. IRP/DSM charges;
  3. PBF surcharge;
  4. Renewable Infrastructure Program; and
  5. Green Infrastructure Fee.

 

Energy cost adjustments are cost recovery mechanisms approved by the Commission to minimize the impact that changes in fuel prices experienced by the utility has on the need for regulatory filings. Basically, whenever the prices on the fuel used by the electric utility to generate electricity goes up, the energy cost adjustment will increase; conversely, when the fuel prices go down, the adjustment will decrease. It also applies to energy purchased from independent power producers. The purchased power adjustment recovers some expenses for non-energy purchased power costs from the independent power producers. The RBA, Revenue Balancing Account, rate adjustment is part of the utility’s decoupling rate structure, which the Public Utilities Commission approved. The intent of decoupling is to remove the linking of revenue to the amount of electricity sold, thereby promoting more clean energy in Hawaii.

IRP/DSM charges are related to an electric company’s Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) and Demand Side Management (DSM) programs (see further discussion of IRP and DSM). The Commission has authorized the companies to recover reasonable costs incurred to conduct integrated resources planning and to implement cost effective DSM programs.

The PBF, Public Benefits Fund, surcharge collects monies that fund Hawaii Energy, a third party administrator, that creates and manages energy efficiency programs, including the energy star appliance and CFL/LED bulb rebates.

The money collected through the Renewable Infrastructure Program helps to recover the cost of projects that facilitate the development and integration of renewable energy.

The Green Infrastructure Fee supports the State’s Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) program, which provides low cost loans to those that cannot afford the upfront costs of green projects. For more information on the GEMS program, click here.

You can also visit Hawaiian Electric’s website for more information about reading your bill, reading your meter (if your bill is estimated), and how to pay your bill. For customers with PV or NEM systems, you can view more information about your bill here.