Why is Singing River Electric separating out demand in billing?
We formerly billed members a daily service charge and an energy use charge. Now, we are separating the energy use charge into two parts – one for the energy you use and one for the demand you set.
What is demand?
Demand is based on the highest number of kilowatts (kW) you use at your home or business in any 1-hour amount of time during that billing cycle.
Let’s look at September 2023 – it has 30 days. You will be billed based on the highest kW amount you use in any hour period during those 30 days.
You can find your demand number on your September 2023 bill by looking at the far-right number in the top bar graph on the back of your bill. If you cannot find a paper copy of your bill, you can see current and past bills using the SmartHub app and clicking Bill & Pay, Billing History and clicking on your August or September 2023 bill statement.
Demand is different for every SRE member.
- You may have a demand of 7 (kW) and your neighbor may have a demand of 24 (kW).
- Your added demand cost in November 2023 would be $3.50 ($0.50 x 7 kW) where your neighbor’s added demand cost would be $12 ($0.50 x 24 kW).
- You can lower demand by not using electric appliances with higher demand all at the same time – within the same hour period. View tips to lower your demand.
- Visit the demand calculator to see which electric appliances use more than others.
- One way to lower demand is to use a delay feature or timer on your dishwasher.
What is the difference between demand and my energy use?
Think of it like this: In your car, you have an odometer that measures the miles you drive, and a speedometer, that measures your speed. In this case, your energy use is like your odometer, measuring the energy you use. Demand is like the speedometer, measuring the peaks in your energy use.
Why bill for demand?
Electric demand costs were previously included in the energy use charge. Singing River Electric is restructuring rates and separating out the demand component for residential and small general services (singe and three-phase) to more accurately reflect the cost of doing business today, and to give our members more control over their power bill.
