Frequently Asked Questions: About Bills

Higher-than-expected energy bills can be very frustrating. We understand and want to help.

Several factors affect your energy bill, such as:

• Energy supply price fluctuations due to weather, demand, and market trends. We buy the energy you use in the competitive, wholesale supply market. We pass our costs on to you without making a profit—what we pay, you pay. We don’t generate electricity.
• More days in the billing period.
• Whether the current or previous bills were estimated.
• The condition of your home’s insulation.
• An increase in energy use due to a change of season or adding new appliances.

Not sure if your energy use has changed from month to month? You can find a breakdown of your energy bill in your account—it’s just one of the ways we’re working to give you more insight into how you use energy. You can find this breakdown, along with a bar chart detailing your monthly usage, by logging in to My Account. You can also find that same bar chart on your paper bill.

If none of the factors listed apply to you and your bill is still much higher than usual, please contact us.

If you’re having trouble paying, we want to support you in any way we can. We have assistance programs and plans that can help you lower energy costs. Find options that work for you.

Please contact us. Although we can answer most questions quickly, sometimes we may need some time to review our records before we can respond.

If your bill seems too high and you're questioning the amount of service you've used, follow these steps:

• Take a photo of your meter and upload it to us.
• Look at the bar chart on your bill. It shows usage for the past 13 months. Consider weather conditions and lifestyle changes that could have increased the amount of energy you used.
• Read your meter. It will be a little higher than what’s on your bill because you’ll have used more since your meter was last read.
• Contact us.

If you were billed for more energy than you used, we will credit your account right away. If you’ve used more service than the amount you were billed, we’ll review the bill with you and work to come up with a reasonable payment arrangement, if necessary.

Even if both households seem identical, there are many factors that affect your energy bills, such as:

• Your neighbor could be on a different service rate.
• The appliances in your homes may not be the same or in the same condition.
• Storm windows and levels of insulation may be different in both homes.
• Energy use habits could be different, even though family size may be the same.

Commercial and industrial customers have both an energy charge and demand charge on their bills. The actual amount of electricity these customers use is the energy charge. The rate at which they consume electricity is the demand charge.

Commercial and industrial customers usually have much higher demand for electricity, so they require more expensive, heavy-duty equipment to supply their power. Your demand charge covers Con Edison’s costs to maintain this equipment and keep your service safe and reliable.

The demand meter records your energy consumption, measured in kilowatt hours, as well as your demand for every 15-minute interval, measured in kilowatts. The highest peak demand recorded for one 15-minute interval is what's shown and billed on your statement.