CenterPoint officials explain newly formatted electric bills
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) — A question for many in Southern Indiana is “Why are some customer’s Centerpoint bills so high?”
Part of the answer comes from an announcement officials made back in June, updating the format of customer’s electric bills.
Centerpoint Energy officials say this new bill layout has a clearer breakdown of monthly charges so customers can better understand how their bills are calculated.
Senior Vice President of External Affairs for CenterPoint Energy, Mike Roeder, says the new bills do not add new charges.
Those are now labeled under four organized groups.
Roeder says, “There’s a customers facilities charge, which is kind of the cost to serve a home or business, kind of the minimum charge.”
According to CenterPoint’s website, this charge is a standard $11 per month, which is the cost of having electric hooked to your home.
“Then there’s the variable base charge. That’s based on the amount of energy consumed. That will go for things like building, and people, and pipes, and wires,” says Roeder.
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The cost of how much energy you’re using inside your home is $0.00169 per kilowatt hour.
Adding the cost of delivering the electricity to your house brings it up to $0.14161 per kilowatt hour.
“Then there’s the fuel charge. That’s the cost that we would pass through for the cost of coal, the cost of natural gas,” adds Roeder.
Those prices are $0.04434 per kilowatt hour.
Roeder says, “Then there’s another bucket called adjustments and that has a number of moving pieces in there. Things like federally mandated investments that we’ve had to make and other renewable investments would appear in there.”
These charges come from the government, stemming from EPA regulations.
For example, the charge goes to the cost of equipment used to control pollution at the local coal firing facilities.
After the 4 categories, there’s the standard 7% Indiana State Sales Tax.
Again, Roeder says these 4 categories are not new charges on customer’s bills.
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14 News calculated one Evansville customer’s prior bill, adding up the electric and service charges, based on the number of kilowatt hours of electricity used.
That total was roughly a hundred dollars less than what the customer was billed.
The hundred dollar difference is really the fuel charges and adjustment charges.
Roeder says customer’s just couldn’t see that detailed breakdown until now, with the new bill format.
The only difference in the two bills is the amount of energy used, resulting in a higher payment, which Roeder says is likely due to heat wave.
“Coming off the billing cycle that we’re in right now, is the 30 plus days of 90 degree heat and humidity that we’ve had in Southwest Indiana, definitely driving bills higher than what people saw in June.”
When Roeder was asked why bills are so high, he says it’s both a rate increase by the IURC from March of 2025 and environmental factors.
Officials have said that hotter weather, higher fuel costs, and federal regulations on coal power plants are just a few of the reasons for rising electric bills nationwide.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the national average of electricity is $0.17 per killowatt hour.
Indiana’s average for electricity is also roughly $0.17 per kilowatt hour.
Kentucky’s average for electricity is $0.14 per kilowatt hour, while the average in Illinois is $0.18 per kilowatt hour.
Centerpoint Energy rates are roughly three cents below the national average at $0.14 per kilowatt hour.
Centerpoint officials say they are in the middle of a costly transition to a new source of energy, switching from coal to wind and solar. Officials say it’s possible more affordable energy is in the near future.
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