Understanding Your Bill

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Bill Terms and Definitions

The following are definitions of terms found on your bill:

Basic Service Charge: Includes ﬁxed costs incurred to serve each customer, regardless of use, such as customer service, bill processing, credit and collections, and the cost of some facilities.
BTU Factor: Converts the volume of gas from cubic feet to therms, a constant heating value.
CCF: A volumetric measure of natural gas. One CCF represents 100 cubic feet of natural gas.
Capital Investment Charge: Collects costs for certain safety-related gas infrastructure improvements.
Delivery/Distribution Charge: A charge for the cost of delivering electric energy or natural gas to you over MidAmerican's distribution systems.
kW Demand Charge: Represents the amount of energy consumed in a specific period (30-minute intervals) and is based on peak use. The demand charge covers a portion of the cost of providing electric service during high-peak periods.
Due Date: Your bill is due and payable on or before the date shown on your bill. A late payment charge will be applied to amounts not paid by the due date.
Electricity Excise Tax: A tax imposed by the state of Illinois on the use or consumption of electricity.
Energy Adjustment Clause: The cost of fuel and purchased power used to supply electricity to customers continually fluctuates. This clause allows MidAmerican to make an annual adjustment to reflect actual fuel and power costs.
Energy Charge: Reﬂects the cost of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity to customers.
Energy Cost Adjustment: A clause to make adjustments quarterly for ﬂuctuation in actual and forecasted fuel and power costs, subject to an annual reconciliation to actual expenditures.
Energy Efficiency Charge: Supports the costs of residential and business energy efﬁciency programs.
Estimated: MidAmerican estimates usage from your gas and/or electric meter when we are unable to get an actual reading. Estimates are determined based on a number of factors, including prior usage and projected costs.
Franchise Fee: A surcharge imposed by a municipality and collected by MidAmerican on behalf of the municipality on the sale or use of natural gas or electricity.
Fuel Adjustment Clause: A charge to recover the costs of fuel used in company-owned generating stations and electricity purchased from outside sources.
Gas Supply Charge: Reﬂects the cost of purchased natural gas, which is passed to customers with no markup. This charge changes monthly, as it reﬂects the fluctuating costs of purchased gas.
Illinois CC Assessment: Reflects the cost to recover taxes paid by the company as required by the Illinois Public Utilities Act for the privilege of operating as a public utility in the state of Illinois.
Income Tax Adjustment: Adjusts base rates to address changes in income tax expense, resulting from changes in income tax rates that differ from the amounts used in MidAmerican's last rate case.
kWh: A unit of electric use. One kilowatt-hour is the amount of electricity used to keep one 100-watt lightbulb illuminated for 10 hours.
Meter Class Charge: A charge to recover a portion of the gas meter costs incurred, which vary based on the volume of gas used and the size of meter and metering equipment required to adequately serve a customer’s needs.
Meter Service Charge: A charge for the performance of functions related to the installation, testing, maintenance, repair and reading of electric meters used for billing of customers and management of meter information.
Municpal Franchise Fee: A fee imposed by municipalities as compensation for using the municipality’s public rights of way for the delivery of electricity or natural gas.
Municipal Tax: A tax imposed by municipalities on the use or consumption of electricity and gas. The tax is collected by MidAmerican on behalf of the municipality.
Pipeline Transport Charge: This reflects the cost incurred to reserve capacity on the interstate pipeline system in order to deliver gas to you. If the pipeline transport charge is not a line item on your bill, it is included in the gas supply charge.
Pressure Factor: A calculation to adjust the metered gas use that compensates for variations in metering and local atmospheric pressure.
Prorate Factor: Adjusts for a billing period shorter or longer than normal.
Purchased Electric Charge: A charge to recover the costs to purchase capacity, energy and transmission services in order to meet our Illinois customers’ electric needs.
Purchased Electric Charge Adjustment: This adjustment may be a charge or credit and ensures that MidAmerican correctly recovers any costs related to the Purchased Electric Charge.
Purchased Renewable Energy Adjustment: A charge that covers the cost to purchase renewable energy resources to meet Illinois requirements.
Purchased Zero Emission Adjustment: A charge that covers the cost of zero-emission energy resources to meet Illinois requirements.
Rate: This designates your gas or electric billing rate at MidAmerican. See tariff and rate schedule information.
State Sales Tax: A state-imposed tax on all billings for gas and electric service.
State Utility Tax: A tax imposed by Illinois on the use or consumption of gas.
Supply Charge: Recovers costs of owning, operating and maintaining MidAmerican’s electric generating stations.
Therms: One therm equals 100,000 British thermal units, or Btu.
Transmission Cost Adjustment: Recovery of the actual and forecasted transmission maintenance and improvement costs, subject to an annual reconciliation.
Transmission Service Charge: This charge recovers the costs, fees and charges related to owning, operating and maintaining the long-distance electric transmission system that delivers electricity from generating stations to local distribution systems.