Power Service Charges

• Electric Base Charge – This charge helps to cover the fixed costs of the city’s power company, such as making the services available upon demand, electrical infrastructure, meter reading & auditing, billing, customer service & maintenance of electrical services.

• Electric Consumption – KWH charge is based on electricity usage and covers the costs to purchase and/or generate power along with other overhead costs. Various sized meters will have multipliers added to the meter to monitor usage. Your typical residential meter has a multiplier of one, meaning you take the usage figure and times it by the multiplier to get the total kWh’s used for the billing cycle.

• Demand Charge – Demand Charge is based upon the highest peak kW electrical power use for a 15-minute period during the billing period. Commercial accounts only, residential customers do not pay a demand. The first 5 kWh of demand is not charged to the customer.

Your Public Power Provider

St. George Energy Services Department (SGESD) is a public power provider, which means it is a community owned and not for profit electric utility.   SGESD strives to provide reliable and affordable rates to our community.  Our rates cover costs to operate the utility such as power poles, transformers, wires etcetera, as well as providing electricity our customers need to power their homes and businesses. 

Increasing Operating Costs

SGESD understands the importance of electricity in the community.  Just as any other business, SGESD has to assure it is collecting enough to cover all of its expenses.  In order to determine appropriate rates, the SGESD conducts a rate study annually to determine if the rates we charge are customers are covering our costs to serve our customers. With rising inflation, rising wholesale power costs, and continued drought in the western united states reducing hydro electric output we have seen significant increases in energy costs and inventory costs including longer lead times.  Based on the results of the rate study, the City Council has determined that a power rate increase is necessary to keep up with increased costs.