Electric Rates Definitions

Ever wonder what those charges on your bill mean? Here's a glossary of terms which are referenced on your bill for you to better understand the charges. 

• Rate Class - Group of customers that have similar usage characteristics.
• Residential - Single family homes and individually metered apartments and some common areas in apartment and home owner association common areas. 
• General Service - Small commercial customers with demand less than 75 kW per billing period.
• General Service Demand - Large commercial customers with demand greater than 75 kW but less than 1,000 kW per billing period.
• General Service Large Demand - Very large commercial and Industrial customers with demands greater than 1,000 kW per billing period.
• Time of Day (TOD) - The rate reflects the different costs of providing electric service at different times of the day, different days of the week, and different seasons.
• Billing Period - Time period of a utility bill generally 1 month. Period can be longer or shorter. This is generally caused by either stopping or starting service.
• kilo-Watt (kW) - Measurement of Demand which represents the highest amount of energy used within a single 15-minute intervals during a billing period.
• kilo-Watt hour (kWh) - Measurement of the flow of electric charge through a conductor or demand integrated over time.
• Load Factor - Ratio of all energy used in a billing period to the peak demand measured in that same billing period...Formula (kWh / (kW X 730 hours) {730 hours is the average number of hours in a month}
• Excess Reactive Demand (kVar) - Reactive power, measured in kilovolt-amperes (kVar), results from equipment that draws more current from the electrical system than usual.
• Customer Charge - Even if you use no energy during the month this charge is for each electric service and pays some of the costs associated with meters, meter reading, billing, and customer service.
• Demand Charge - Through the demand charge, each business pays its share of the utility's investment in generation, transmission and distribution equipment standing by to serve.
• Energy Charge - The energy charge recovers variable costs related to electric service, utility operation and maintenance expenses, debt service, city contribution, and other costs.
• Fuel Charge - The fuel charge recovers variable costs related to purchasing fuel burned in JEA's power plants or purchased through power markets.
• Environmental Charge - The environmental charge recovers costs related to current and future environmental projects.
• Franchise Fee - Fee levied on JEA by a municipality to provide service to the residents of that municipality (Levied by and remitted to the municipality levying the fee).
• Gross Receipts Tax - Tax levied on JEA by the State of Florida for providing electrical service to residents and businesses of the State (Levied by and remitted to the State of Florida).
• Public Service Tax - Tax charged by a municipality on the customers of JEA (A portion of the fuel charge is exempt from the Public Service Tax).
• Florida State Sales Tax - Sales tax charged by the State of Florida on the commercial electric customers of JEA. The State tax rate for electric service is 7% but may be increased by any local option sales tax on the first $5,000 of the taxable charges on an electric bill. Customers on residential rates are exempt from sales tax.