Understanding Your Bill

How to Read Your Bill

Top of the statement:

1. Important telephone numbers – how to contact NPU in an emergency or to report a service problem.
2. Customer Service contact information – how to contact NPU to discuss any issue related to your utility account.
3. Service information – Account number, service address statement date.
4. Billing summary – contains a breakdown of all the charges and credits that make up the amount due to NPU.
5. Due date – payments made after this date will incur a 1 1/2 % late fee.

Middle of statement – Breakdown of usage and charges

1. Next date your meter(s) will be read.
2. Consumption graph showing average usage over the past 13 months.  The red line indicates the average daily temperature for that month.
3. Meter reading data.
4. Charges by rate class.
5. Percentage of consumption used compared to the previous month and previous year, as well as a daily average.
6. Total charges for all services.
7. Miscellaneous charges and credits (if none, you will not see this box).
8. Important message from NPU.

Bottom of statement – Payment Coupon

Please include this section with any payment sent to NPU, including payments left in the dropbox at NPU’s Customer Service Center.

1. Late fee reminder – please allow at least five days for processing if mailing payment.
2. Amount due summary – please write the amount of payment in the “Amount Enclosed” box.
3. If the amount enclosed includes a donation to Operation Fuel, please write the donation amount in this box.
4. Mailing address to send payment.  Please make sure this address appears in the return envelope window.

Special Payment Arrangement (SPA) Statements

Customers on a SPA plan will see additional information on the top of their statement

1. Important telephone numbers – how to contact NPU in an emergency or to report a service problem.
2. Customer Service contact information – how to contact NPU to discuss any issue related to your utility account.
3. Service information – Account number, service address statement date.
4. Billing summary – contains a breakdown of all the charges and credits that make up the amount due for this billing period.  The payment arrangement number is now shown.
5. Due date – payments made after this date will incur a 1 1/2 % late fee.
6. Account Summary – This is the current amount due on your utility account.  The Account Balance is the amount that would need to be paid if the Special Payment Arrangement (SPA) is no longer in place.

Budget Customer Statements

Budget customers will see additional information at the top of their statements.

1. Important telephone numbers – how to contact NPU in an emergency or to report a service problem.
2. Customer Service contact information – how to contact NPU to discuss any issue related to your utility account.
3. Service information – Account number, service address statement date.
4. Billing summary – contains a breakdown of all the charges and credits that make up the amount due for this billing period.  The budget payment number is now shown.
5. Due date – payments made after this date will incur a 1 1/2 % late fee.
6. Account Summary – This is the current amount due on your utility account.  The Account Balance is the amount that would need to be paid if the budget plan is no longer in place.

The Back of the Statement Also Includes Important Information…

1.  Norwich Public Utilities contact information

2.  Your rights as an NPU customer, including a statement in other languages encouraging the reader to get this information translated.

3.  News briefs – timely information about NPU activities, community events, and other news.

4.  Other convenient and timely options for paying your bill.

About Purchased Power and Purchased Gas Adjustments

You will see adjustments to your electricity and natural gas rates that may increase or decrease your bill. These are needed because both of these energy sources are subject to price fluctuations.

NPU develops its rates based on a forecasted cost of the supply. Sometimes, the actual rate is more, or less, than this forecasted rate. When this occurs, the cost increase, or cost savings, are shown as a purchased power adjustment (PPA) or purchased gas adjustment (PGA). NPU does not collect extra profit on energy supply costs, so cost increases cannot be absorbed by NPU. Cost increases and cost savings are passed onto customers.

To ease the pain of cost increases, Norwich balances the needed adjustments over a period of time so that large price spikes are not reflected in monthly bills.

Current PPA and PGA information can be found here.