With final billing in from ComEd, here are the numbers:
| Month | kWh | HourlyPricing | FlatRate | Savings! |
| January | 1896 | $249.41 | $240.08 | -$9.33 |
| February | 1651 | $164.02 | $216.72 | $52.70 |
| March | 1349 | $144.21 | $172.02 | $27.81 |
| April | 1081 | $133.31 | $138.61 | $5.30 |
| May | 1170 | $125.22 | $150.18 | $24.96 |
| June | 2028 | $199.31 | $258.90 | $59.59 |
| July | 2173 | $192.18 | $269.91 | $77.73 |
| August | 1817 | $182.07 | $232.32 | $50.25 |
| September | 1789 | $177.72 | $223.87 | $46.15 |
| October | 986 | $112.58 | $128.41 | $15.83 |
| November | 1075 | $126.15 | $138.60 | $12.45 |
| December | 1069 | $129.27 | $137.90 | $8.63 |
| 2018 Totals | 18084 | $1,935.45 | $2,307.52 | $372.07 |
Not a bad year with only one month with a bill higher than flat-rate. I’ve been on hourly pricing since July 2008 and in all that time only 5 months have been higher than flat rate, most have been in winter with Jan-Mar of 2014 being particularly bad — remember the Polar Vortex?
Reading your Utility Bill
Electricity bills consist of three components: the cost of the energy (supply), the cost to deliver that energy (delivery) and taxes and fees. A typical ComEd bill breaks them down visually:
If you have a different electricity supplier than ComEd, it would be indicated on the left hand side of the graphic. In my case ComEd is the supplier and the delivery company.
Alternate Electricity Suppliers
Every so often I get an offer in the mail to switch to a different energy company for the “supplier” part of my electric service. In every case what sounds like a way to save money would turn out to be the opposite. The latest offered to lock in my electric rates to $0.065/kWh. The graphic above was taken off the December 2018 bill. Taking the cost of the energy ($64.47) and dividing by the total kWh (1069) yields a cost of $0.0603 per kWh. Even in one of the smaller savings months (vs. ComEd flat-rate), I would still be under the offer from the competitor. Below are the monthly energy costs (supply) and the average cost per kWh for each month in 2018:
| Month | kWh | Energy Cost | Average cost per kWh |
| January | 1896 | $139.41 | $0.0735 |
| February | 1651 | $72.45 | $0.0439 |
| March | 1349 | $66.52 | $0.0493 |
| April | 1081 | $68.08 | $0.0630 |
| May | 1170 | $55.92 | $0.0478 |
| June | 2028 | $90.09 | $0.0444 |
| July | 2173 | $107.92 | $0.0497 |
| August | 1817 | $95.20 | $0.0524 |
| September | 1789 | $100.00 | $0.0559 |
| October | 986 | $51.59 | $0.0523 |
| November | 1075 | $61.06 | $0.0568 |
| December | 1069 | $64.47 | $0.0603 |
| 2018 Totals | 18084 | $972.71 | $0.0538 |
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me.