NEW YORK STATE — New York State Energy & Gas (NYSEG) released a graphic to help residential customers better understand their bills and continue the company’s mission of being transparent, it said. See at www.nyseg.com/understand-your-bill.
The bill explainer intends to provide information on various charges that appear on customers’ bills, including the company’s delivery charge and several additional charges. NYSEG says some of these additional charges are beyond the company’s control, such as the system-benefits charge and the supply charge. The system-benefits charge funds activities conducted by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as required by regulatory authorities. Supply is a pass-through cost influenced by market drivers that NYSEG does not control nor profit from, according to the explainer.
In addition to these charges, the explainer also breaks down parts of the basic service charge, delivery charge and transition charge. While these charges are on NYSEG bills, certain portions are mandated by government programs and taxes. Specifically, about one-quarter of the basic service and delivery charge is directed toward these governmental obligations, the company said.
The remaining amount of the delivery charges cover the costs associated with delivering safe and reliable power to customers. These costs encompass a wide range of operational expenses, including but not limited to the salaries and benefits of line workers, the maintenance and replacement of electric poles, vegetation management to prevent outages, the upkeep of vehicle fleets and the ongoing modernization and maintenance of the power grid.
NYSEG encourages any customer who has a question about their bill to call 800/572-1111.