Electric Bills in Amarillo Soar: What’s Yours Look Like?

One of the necessities in life is electricity.  Most everything in a home runs off of electricity, and the more you use, the more you pay.

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However, it's a horrific experience every time you open your electric bill, whether is comes to you in an envelope or through your emails.  It's scary to open and see that enormous price staring back at you.

Anyone else’s electric bill crazy high? I almost fell over when I saw our bill!!

It's not just you, it's everyone.  Everyone has seen an increase in their electric bill recently.   Most bills have doubled in a month.

Did anyone's electric bill double this month?

My electric bill last month jumped almost $75 and our usage didn't change.  However, one thing did change.  We got a new digital meter in our house recently.  This meter can be read from somewhere in another place, and human doesn't have to come and check the meter.  You can also log into your account and see what you're using in energy every 30 minutes.

Another thing I noticed is that for those of us that are on the new digital meter now, the electric company can now determine our usage during peak hours and non-peak hours.

My bill had a hundred dollar increase in one month.

It's been hot and the AC will run more during these triple digits.

Even if you run your AC at the same temp 24/7 your AC is working harder to keep it running to keep it at that 73 degrees when it's 104 outside. Mine seems to run all the time, and it's a new unit.

When I looked back at last year's bill, it was $7 cheaper last year.  Temperatures were a lot cooler than this year.  However, fuel costs were lower last year.

Plus, the cost of fuel is always a factor. When it goes up, your bill goes up.

There are different plans you can choose from if you realize that your bill is way more expensive than you can handle.

They have a basic residential plan. This is your basic plan, costs for kWh are June through September (summer) $0.078572, and October through May (winter) $0.068353.  You will also see a $10 service charge that covers those specific costs that do not change with the amount of electricity you use;  your meter, maintaining your account, etc.  It will also include a fuel cost recovery charge that is designed to recover the costs of fuel used to produce electricity and energy purchased on the wholesale
electricity market. You'll also be charged a franchise fee.

You could opt in for the Time of Use Plan.  This is for those that use under 640 kWh per month.  You will be charged differently for on-peak hours which is 1 pm - 7 pm, M-F, the charge is $0.167315 per kWh, and off-peak hours are 7 pm - 1pm, and weekends, and the charge is $0.077926 per kWh for all kWh used during all hours.  If you want to get on this plan, Xcel will install a Time of Use meter and offer you a special off-peak rate.
You must remain on the Time of Use rate for a minimum of one year. After one year you may elect to be removed from the Time of Use rate plan.  You will still be charged a service availability charge, which is more than the standard plan due to the metering and bill calculation.

They also offer an Averaged Monthly Rate plan, and this plan is where you pay an agreed-upon fixed rate each month.  This will help you average your costs.  You only pay for the energy you use.  They determine your monthly rate by the forecasted consumption based on usage from the previous year and other factors.  Every three months they will check the account and adjust if you have used more or less than your average monthly payment.  In those months you may end up with a True Up charge which means you may pay more that month depending on the usage during those three months if it exceeded your average monthly payment.

Let's just hope once the temps go down, so will our electric bills.  I don't know about you but my gas bill and electric bill switch places in the winter.  So they both equal out over the year.