Fixed charges on your electric bill: the customer charge and basic service charge
The customer charge, also called the basic service charge, is a flat monthly amount your utility bills whether you use one kWh or a thousand. Because it does not shrink with use, it weighs most in mild months: NV Energy homes used 484 kWh in February 2026 and paid $69.98, against 1,826 kWh and $228.70 in August 20261.
Published November 14, 2026.
The short answer
A customer charge is the part of an electric bill that does not depend on use. Your utility's tariff sets it as a fixed number of dollars per month for each account or meter, and you pay it in a month when you are away and the meter barely moves. Everything else on a typical bill is billed per kWh, so a fixed charge is the one line that use cannot shrink.
The names differ by utility and state but describe the same line: customer charge, basic service charge, basic charge, service charge, facilities charge, monthly service fee. Look for a dollar amount with no kWh next to it, usually at the top of the delivery or distribution section of the bill.
What the charge pays for
Some of a utility's costs grow with every kWh: fuel, power purchases, much of the grid built for peak demand. Others are the same for a home that uses little and a home that uses a lot: the meter, the service line from the transformer, meter reading, billing and the call center. A fixed monthly charge recovers part of that second group. How much of it goes into the fixed charge, and how much into the per-kWh rate, is decided by the state utility commission in a rate case, or by the board of a public power utility or cooperative.
That choice is a trade-off. A larger fixed charge with a lower per-kWh rate means steadier bills and less reward for saving electricity; a smaller fixed charge means low users pay less and high users pay more. Commissions revisit the split in rate cases, which is why the customer charge on your bill can change on the same date as the per-kWh rates. The guide to rate cases follows a request from filing to bill.
Why the price per kWh drops when you use more
Divide any month's bill by its kWh and the fixed charge is spread across them. Written out: your price per kWh = (fixed charge ÷ kWh) + the per-kWh charges. In a month with few kWh the first term is large; in a month with many kWh it nearly disappears. The tariff has not changed, but your average has.
EIA's monthly utility data show this on a large scale. EIA reports each sampled utility's residential revenue, kWh and customers every month, and the bill and price below are those totals divided out, with fixed charges included and most taxes excluded. At NV Energy, use per home in the 12 months to August 2026 was lowest in February 2026, at 484 kWh with an average bill of $69.98, and highest in August 2026, at 1,826 kWh and $228.701. Use rose far more than the bill did, so the average price per kWh was higher in the mild month than in the air-conditioning month, as the table under the chart shows month by month. Months since January 2026 are preliminary.
Source: EIA-861M monthly sales and revenue by utility. kWh per residential customer in each month (EIA-861M; months since January 2026 preliminary). The table adds the average bill and price for the month.
Show the numbers
| Month | kWh per customer | Bill per customer | ¢/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 1,084 | $142.12 | 13.11¢ |
| October 2025 | 654 | $89.68 | 13.71¢ |
| November 2025 | 533 | $75.52 | 14.17¢ |
| December 2025 | 598 | $82.14 | 13.74¢ |
| January 2026 | 612 | $85.25 | 13.94¢ |
| February 2026 | 484 | $69.98 | 14.45¢ |
| March 2026 | 653 | $91.85 | 14.07¢ |
| April 2026 | 575 | $82.49 | 14.36¢ |
| May 2026 | 924 | $124.55 | 13.48¢ |
| June 2026 | 1,423 | $184.50 | 12.97¢ |
| July 2026 | 1,824 | $230.22 | 12.62¢ |
| August 2026 | 1,826 | $228.70 | 12.52¢ |
The same pattern, sharper, appears at the Imperial Irrigation District in California's desert southeast: 593 kWh and an average bill of $143.00 in February 2026, against 2,127 kWh and $345.39 in August 20261.
A fixed charge is not the only thing that moves your average
EIA's monthly figures cannot separate the customer charge from the rest of the tariff. Seasonal rates, tiers that price kWh above a threshold differently, fuel adjustments and bill credits all change the average from month to month too, and they can push the other way. Georgia Power is an example: its homes used 734 kWh in April 2026 with an average bill of $109.84, and 1,355 kWh in July 2026 with $255.801. There the bill rose faster than use, so something billed per kWh cost more in the summer month, more than offsetting the fixed charge being spread thinner.
So a month-to-month change in your price per kWh is not, on its own, evidence of a rate change. Compare the same month a year apart, and read the fixed charge and the per-kWh rates on the bill itself.
Who feels the fixed charge most
The share of a bill taken by a fixed charge depends on use. Where homes use little electricity, the same fixed dollar amount is a larger part of each bill and adds more to the average price per kWh. In 2025, average use per home was lowest in California (494 kWh a month), Hawaii (515 kWh) and Maine, against 1,225 kWh in Louisiana and 874 kWh2 nationally.
Source: EIA-861 2025, average monthly bill by state. Residential kilowatt-hours per customer per month, 2025.
Show the numbers
| State | kWh a month, 2025 |
|---|---|
| California | 494 |
| Hawaii | 515 |
| Maine | 533 |
| Rhode Island | 562 |
| Alaska | 564 |
| New York | 586 |
| Vermont | 592 |
| Massachusetts | 596 |
| Michigan | 635 |
| New Mexico | 638 |
| District of Columbia | 639 |
| New Hampshire | 640 |
| United States | 874 |
Within any state the same holds household by household. An apartment, a vacation home or a home heated with gas pays the full customer charge on far fewer kWh than an all-electric house next door, so its all-in price per kWh is higher on an identical tariff. Rooftop solar has the same effect: in 2025 utilities reported 5,510,1353 residential net-metered solar installations to EIA, and on a month when panels cover most of the kWh, the fixed charge can be most of what remains on the bill. Whether solar credits can offset it depends on the state's net metering or net billing rules; the net metering guide covers them.
California's new flat monthly charge
California shows how a commission can change the split. In May 2024 the California Public Utilities Commission approved a new billing structure that moves a portion of fixed infrastructure costs out of the per-kWh usage rate and into a flat monthly line, lowers the usage rate for all residential customers in exchange, and sets discounted flat amounts for low-income customers in the CARE and FERA programs. The commission said the new structure would be implemented starting in late 2025 and early 2026.
California is where such a charge matters most for the average: its homes used the least electricity of any state in 2025, 494 kWh2 a month, and paid an average of 32.34¢ per kWh4 over the 12 months September 2025 to August 2026, fixed charges and credits included. Average revenue per kWh is not a tariff, and EIA's figures do not show the flat charge as a separate line, so the effect on any one household has to be read from its own bill. The California page has the state's figures.
Fixed charges in retail choice states and Texas
In the states where homes can buy electricity from a supplier other than the utility, the customer charge sits with the delivery utility, because it owns the meter and the wires. Switching supplier changes the supply price per kWh, not the delivery customer charge. A supplier's own plan may add a monthly fee of its own, which appears in its terms rather than in the utility's tariff. The delivery vs supply guide shows where each part sits on the bill.
Texas works differently: in its competitive areas the delivery utility does not bill homes directly, so its fixed monthly charge reaches you through the retail provider's bill, alongside any base charge in the provider's own plan. The Oncor and CenterPoint pages show what each delivery utility collected.
Checking the fixed charge on your own bill
- Find the flat dollar lines: the customer or basic service charge, and any other line with no kWh beside it. Add them up.
- Divide that total by the whole bill. The result is the share of the bill you cannot change by using less.
- Divide the whole bill by its kWh to get your all-in price per kWh, then repeat for a high-use month. The gap between the two shows how much the fixed charge moves your average.
- Find the customer charge in your utility's tariff, usually published on its website and on file with the state commission, to see whether it changed at the last rate case.
- To test a different usage level or a time-of-use plan against the same fixed charge, enter the tariff's lines in the rate explainer; for a typical month in your state, use the bill calculator.
If the fixed part of the bill is hard to pay, ask the utility about income-qualified rates; the help paying your electric bill guide lists the programs.
Customer and basic service charges: common questions
What is the customer charge on my electric bill?
A fixed amount per month, per meter, that the utility's approved tariff sets for your rate class. It is billed even if you use no electricity and pays for costs that do not depend on how much you use, such as the meter, the service connection and billing. The amount is in your utility's tariff on file with the state utility commission.
Is a basic service charge the same as a customer charge?
Yes, in almost every case. Utilities use different names for the same flat monthly line: customer charge, basic service charge, basic charge, service charge, facilities charge or monthly service fee. A few use a minimum bill instead, which works differently: you pay a set amount only if your usage charges come to less.
Can I get the customer charge removed?
Not by using less electricity, and not by switching supplier in a retail choice state, because the charge belongs to the utility that owns the wires and meter. Closing the account ends it. Income programs approved by a state commission can lower it, as California's does for customers enrolled in CARE or FERA.
Does the customer charge change my price per kWh?
Your all-in price per kWh, the bill divided by the kWh, includes it, so a small user pays more per kWh than a large user on the same tariff. EIA's state and utility averages include fixed charges for the same reason: they are total revenue divided by total kWh.
Related guides
Sources
- EIA-861M monthly sales and revenue by utility; table sales_ult_cust_2025 and _2026; released October 23, 2026. www.eia.gov
- EIA-861 2025, average monthly bill by state; table Average_Bill_2025; 2025, final; released October 7, 2026. www.eia.gov
- EIA-861 2025, advanced meters, dynamic pricing and net metering; table Advanced_Meters, Dynamic_Pricing, Net_Metering 2025; 2025, final; released October 7, 2026. www.eia.gov
- EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state; table sales_revenue.xlsx (EPM Table 5.6.A); January 2001 to 2026-08; months since January 2026 preliminary; released October 23, 2026. www.eia.gov
How every figure is built: methodology. Found an error? Write to [email protected]; corrections are listed on the updates page.