Understanding your Bill with NYSEG in New York State

Updated on 11/11/2021

min reading

This page describes an example of a typical NYSEG bill, a definition of each term and its purpose in your bill.

Save Money on Your NYSEG Bill

Save Money With a Lower Rate!Customers in NYSEG's service territory can choose their energy supplier. ESCOs in New York can offer savings and environmentally-friendly energy options. To learn more about energy supply options in your area, check out our pages on energy in New York, or call us directly at phone currently not available to find the best rates in your area.

Electricity prices are rising each year, so here are a few ideas for taking the pressure off your energy budget.

The most effective change you can make is to reduce your overall energy consumption. A lot of the items on your NYSEG bill are charged on a per kWh basis, so improving your energy efficiency at home can go a long way towards lowering your bills.

Energy Saving Ideas Check out some of our useful tips about how to save money on your energy bills, including how to save money in the summer, how to use your appliances wisely, and all about a little thing called vampire energy

Another option you can take is to take a look at the rate you're paying with NYSEG, and see if it can be beat by an alternate energy supply company (ESCO). With electricity markets in New York open to competition, many alternative suppliers can offer competitive rates for electricity and natural gas.

To learn more about energy supply options in your area, check out our pages on energy in New York, or call us directly at phone currently not available to find the best rates in your area.

Example of a 2014 NYSEG bill - page 1

Account information

This section includes important identification information including your NYSEG account number, service address, the billing period, and the total amount due.

It is important to verify that this information is correct on every bill that you receive, so that you know that you are being billed correctly.

Account summary

Previous invoice: Amount to be paid on previous bill.
Payments received: The last payment made to NYSEG for the previous bill. If you have paid your bill correctly, this amount should be equal to the previous invoice.
Balance forward: any non-paid amount is forwarded to the next bill.
Miscellaneous Charges: These are described more in detail on Page 4 of your bill.
Budget billing amount: total amount of charges to be paid (apart from the miscellaneous charges).
This amount will be deducted from you bank account on 03/16/14: total bill to pay, when you are on an automated payment plan
1.5% late payment charge: since the statement was issued on February 21st and you must pay the bill before March 16th, this leaves you approximately 3 weeks to pay your bill. Otherwise you will be charged an extra 1.5% on your outstanding balance. This does not include the late payment fees for supply if you are signed up with an alternate supplier (ESCO).

Budget billing summary

Budget billing is a program you can enroll in to spread out your bill payments. NYSEG will calculate your bill for the whole year based on last year's usage of electricity and/or gas. Your bill for the whole year will be divided up into 12 months and a bill for the same amount will be sent to you every month. Your usage will be reevaluated every three months, and the remaining monthly bills to be paid will be updated accordingly. Each bill will contain a table as the one here shown:

Current Month: Shows how much you must pay this month.
Actual Charges: Corresponds to the amount of usage that has been used since enrolling in the budget plan. It is what you would be billed if you weren’t on the program.
Budgets Billed: Corresponds to the amount of money you have actually paid.
Budget Balance: This is the amount that you used and not paid for yet.

Ideally, you should not enroll until you have been living in your home five or six months so that there is enough information for your average energy usage to be calculated. Although it is possible to enroll immediately, it is not recommended, since NYSEG would have to calculate your average usage based on the previous inhabitant's usage.

Example of a 2014 NYSEG bill - page 2

Messages:

This section gives you information about: your total supply charge per kWh, signing up with an alternate supplier (also called ESCO), different charges which may have changed (SBC, EEPS, RSS), and a fund created by NYSEG and RG&E to pay for heating during energy emergencies.

Contact information:

This section contains contact information for contact by phone, e-mail or mail.

Mailing Address Changes:

Notify NYSEG in case of a change in address and contact information.

Autopay:

Sign up to Autopay here or on the NYSEG website. Autopay enables you to automatically pay NYSEG with your checking account details, 23 days after you bill is mailed to you.

Example of a 2014 NYSEG bill - page 3

Electricity service:

Electricity service type: residential.
Electricity rate type: 12001 NYSEG Supply Service. This means your electricity supply is made by NYSEG (you could also be supplied by an alternate supplier (also called ESCO)and sold to you at market price.
Service from: gives the dates for which this bill is made. These should be the same as the meter reading dates.
PoD ID: (Point of Delivery ID) this information is useful for alternate suppliers (ESCO) if you choose them as supplier instead of NYSEG.
Meter information: meter number, current and previous meter read date and kWh reading, and calculated amount of kWh and corresponding days.

Electricity delivery charges:

Basic service charge: This is a fixed amount which is the same every month, and is independent of your electricity usage. It includes the cost for reading and maintaining the meters, billing, equipment and maintenance.
Delivery charge: This is the charge to transport the electricity from the electricity source to your residence. This is not a supply charge, it does not vary depending on your supplier.
Transition charge: Customers are billed the cost or benefit of NYSEG’s long-term electricity supply contracts (may be positive or negative). This charge will not change whether you purchase your electricity supply from NYSEG or from an alternate supplier (ESCO).
Revenue decoupling mechanism (RDM): NYSEG makes previsions every year on the revenues associated with the delivery of electricity to customers. If the targets are reached, then the surplus is refunded to the customer, and if the targets are not reached, the lack is collected from the customers.
Reliability support services charge: this charge is so NYSEG can keep the Cayuga Generating Facility (in Lansing, Tompkins County), in operation, in order to ensure reliable electric service in the region. This facility is made up of 2 coal-fired power-plants. The company tried to shut them down as of 2013, but NYSEG announced that closing the plants could weaken the reliability of the electricity service in that area.
NY State Assessment: This tax is a special state assessment, collected by utilities for the state’s general fund. This assessment should represent an annual bill increase of approximately 2%. This assessment will be collected until March 2014.
SBC/RPS charge: This charge pays for energy efficiency programs, assistance for low-income customers and energy research. It also includes the EEPS (described in the messages page 2), the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, which pays for discounts that encourage customers to install high-efficiency energy appliances in their homes.

Electricity Supply Charges

Supply charge: The market price of electricity supply used during the billing period.
Merchant function charge: A charge for NYSEG's cost to procure the electricity supply. NYSEG will not bill you this charge if you choose an alternate supplier (ESCO). The merchant function charge is not the same every month, therefore it is divided between the January and the February cost pro rata of the amount of days. This makes the assumption that every day the electricity consumption was the same. If not, it would have been necessary to make an extra meter reading at the start of the month of February (for the gas supply and delivery, two separate meter readings have been made, one for January and one for February).

Compare the Electricity Supply charge together with the Merchant Function Charge with ESCO offers to find the best deal for electricity (and gas), or call us at phone currently not available to find the best offers available in your area.

Electricity Taxes and Surcharges

Taxes on delivery charges

Gas Service

Gas service type: residential.
Gas rate type: 08701H Sales: This means your electricity supply is made by NYSEG. If you purchase gas from an ESCO it will be noted here
Service from: same as for electricity.
PoD ID: same as for electricity.
Meter information: meter number, current and previous meter read date and ccf (unit of volume equal to 100 cubic feet) reading, and calculated amount of ccf and corresponding days. For the gas bill, 2 separate readings have been made: one for the last 17 days of January and one for the first 15 days of February. This was not done for the electricity bill since it was assumed by NYSEG that the customer's usage was the same every day, and therefore there was no need to count the January and February meter readings separately.

Natural Gas Delivery Charges

Natural gas used (ccf): The ccf is a unit of volume equal to 100 cubic feet. Indeed, natural gas cannot be measured by a meter by its energy, but by its volume. The volume is then converted into energy. We know that 1 ccf will supply 1.0287 therms of energy, therefore we can calculate the energy consumed over the whole month.
Basic service charge: For gas delivery the first 3 therms of gas are included in the basic service charge.
Delivery charge: The delivery of the next 47 therms is priced at 52.9¢/therm. For the rest of the gas demanded (240.1 therms), the price is lower, 12¢/therm.
Weather adjustment: Gas bills tend to vary more between cold and hot months. This charge balances gas bills during cold weather between October 1 and May 31: if temperatures during that time are colder than usual, customers are credited a weather adjustment. If temperatures are warmer than usual, customers are charged a weather adjustment.
Research & development charge: Consistent with the PSC (Public Service Commission) order in Case 99-G-1369, NYSEG can charge a Research and Development Adjustment to provide funding for R&D programs. R&D funding obtained from this charge must be inferior or equal to $650,000 per year.
Transition surcharge: Customers are billed the cost or benefit of NYSEG’s long-term gas supply contracts (may be positive or negative). This charge will not change whether you purchase your gas supply from NYSEG or from an alternate supplier (ESCO). This is the gas equivalent of the electric "Transition charge".
Revenue decoupling mechanism: same as for electricity.
NY state assessment: same as for electricity.
SBC charge: System Benefits Charge: Pays for energy efficiency initiatives, education and outreach, R&D, and energy assistance for people with low-income.

Example of a 2014 NYSEG bill - page 4

Gas Service (continued)

Natural Gas Supply Charges:

Supply charge - January: The market price of natural gas supply used during the January portion of the billing period. The price will therefore be the average market price over that period of time (the last 17 days of January, as indicated on the meter read information)
Supply charge - February: The February portion of the supply charge.
Merchant function charge: As for electricity, it is a charge for NYSEG's cost to procure the gas supply, (and to transport it to NYSEG's transmission & distribution system). NYSEG will not bill you this charge if you choose an alternate supplier (ESCO). As described above, the merchant function charge is not the same every month, therefore it is divided between the January and the February cost pro rata of the amount of days.
Natural Gas Taxes and Surcharges: State taxes applied to the delivery of the gas.

Usage Chart Information

This section will display charts of your historic electricity and gas usage. This enables you to better understand your own usage, and how to manage it.

Example of a 2014 NYSEG bill - page 5

Definitions:

This pages gives you a definition of parts of your bill.