The “Service Charge” is a flat fee covering the fixed costs of providing electricity to a member’s meter. That includes costs associated with building and maintaining the distribution system, poles, wires, substations, insurance, property taxes, and other operational costs like payroll and vehicles.

This fee spreads the shared operational costs across all members as fairly and equitably as possible, regardless of how much electricity they use. That’s why every member pays the service charge each month to cover basic operational costs. All members are charged the same amount for the cost of operation since all members benefit from the same service.

All electric utilities include some type of service charge, or facilities charge, in their pricing. This fee is often included in the energy charge and not as a separate line item on the bill.

Historically, Berkeley Electric Cooperative has undercharged for its Service Charge and recovered the difference in its cost per kWh charges. However, this can result in one rate class subsidizing costs for other rate categories.

To ensure that all members are treated fairly, the service charge has been increased to cover the true cost of delivering service for each member. Since the base rate had only a minimal increase, the largest portion of the rate adjustment is accounted for by the increased service charge which, in turn, leads to a higher percentage increase for low kWh-use members.