How Your Utility Bill Is Calculated: A Simple Customer Guide

Some of these charges are based on how much natural gas you use during the billing cycle, while others are fixed charges that stay the same regardless of your consumption. The usage-based charges are calculated using your total consumption, measured in CCFs. 

Let’s take a closer look at each category.

Delivery and Service Charges

These cover the costs of bringing natural gas to your home or business. Between infrastructure maintenance, customer service, and our daily operations, our dedicated team works 24/7 to ensure you have dependable energy and the support you need. You’ll see two types of charges on your bill:

1. Customer Charge: Fixed amount charged each billing cycle for all active accounts based on customer class.
2. Distribution Rate: Volumetric charge applied to your gas usage during the billing cycle. There are typically two line items for the Distribution Rate on your bill. The first line item for this rate covers your first block of gas usage. If you use more than that, a lower rate kicks in—helping keep those higher-usage months a little more affordable.

Our costs are all filed with and approved by our regulators. From time to time, you might see additional approved line items or credits on your bill. A few examples are:

• System Safety Enhancement Rider (SSER): Supports recovery of essential infrastructure improvement projects
• Weather Normalization Adjustment (WNA): Reduces the impact of abnormal cold and hot weather on both customers and Summit. Active November through April.
• Energy Efficiency Cost Recover (EECR): Recovers required energy-efficiency promotion
• Billing Determinant Rate Adjustment (BDA): Reduces the impact of declining billing activity on Summit’s approved revenues

Supply Charges

These include the cost of natural gas itself. The Gas Supply Rate (GSR) covers what we pay our suppliers, plus delivery and adjustment costs. The rate is filed with our regulators twice a year: for the winter season (November–March) and the summer (April–October).

We refer to the GSR as a “pass-through” cost because we add no markup and make no profit on this charge. To keep things fair for all customers, you pay what we pay, based on your gas usage.

See Current Residential Rates