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It has been a challenging time to make ends meet. There’s been an increase in the cost of your groceries, insurance, and, yes, even your utility bill. RG&E cares about the people we serve, and we want to make sure that you can afford to keep the lights on at home.
That’s why I want to make this perfectly clear: RG&E delivery rates, while increased last May as part of our agreement with the state, have not gone up this winter.
I know you have questions, so let me explain.
RG&E is highly regulated by the New York State Public Service Commission and tasked with safely and reliably delivering energy to your home through our wires, substations, and pipelines. However, we are also required to issue bills which include a major line item that we have no control over: supply. RG&E only controls the delivery line item on customer bills, not supply costs. Supply costs, which originate from third-party energy suppliers, have dramatically increased this winter. The daily supply rate has increased by over 50 percent in many cases and in parts of the state, some customers have seen increases of 67 percent or higher.
The New York Independent System Operator is responsible for the wholesale energy market and the cost to supply energy is set by the market and not by the Public Service Commission. While RG&E purchases the supply on customers’ behalf, we do not mark up or profit from the supply line on your bill. As a consumer, you have the freedom to choose where you get your supply. Some suppliers offer a fixed or variable price for their supply. However, if you choose a different supplier, you could end up paying less or more; there is no guarantee of savings compared to what RG&E purchases on customers’ behalf.
There’s another reason why your bill is higher than normal: You’re using more energy even if your habits haven’t changed. Every year, the cold temperatures will require your home to use more energy. That’s simply a fact. When temperatures are in the teens and single digits, your furnace, boilers, and baseboard heating use more energy to keep your home at your ideal temperature. Even your water heater works harder when it’s cold outside, as the water that comes into your home is colder.
This winter was colder than last year. The average temperature was 28 degrees in December, 20 degrees in January, and 24 degrees in February. In fact, some areas this winter are about 10 to 15 percent colder than last year, which correlates with the spike in your energy usage.
The increase in energy use will happen again. In just a few months, we’ll be in the dog days of summer. During this time, when you escape the high heat and humidity to enjoy the comfort of air conditioning, it’s reasonable to expect your energy usage to increase. In short, when extreme temperatures hit, more energy will be used. When those periods combine with higher supply costs, it’s normal to see bills double or even triple.
Meanwhile, we are here to help you manage your energy use and costs. Your family can receive help with your bill through initiatives including our Energy Assistance Program, Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), budget billing, payment arrangements, and other opportunities that help qualifying families. RG&E also regularly provides tips on how to reduce your energy use, such as adjusting your thermostat when you leave the house, proper insulating, and other helpful tips around your home.
There’s one other thing: we’re not naïve. There’s a reality of the social media world we live in. Misinformation will travel around the world several times before the truth gets around once. There are legitimate billing concerns from individuals that we have, and always will, faithfully resolve. However, others choose to vilify our company and our workers either because they are pushing an agenda, unwilling to accept personal responsibility for their usage and/or lack of payment, or trolling smart meters because that’s our newest technology. Those same people are interacting with others online who could be helped by contacting us directly, who end up becoming more upset due to the misinformation they read on these community forums. The last I checked, the internet is undefeated in arguments on the internet.
Having unpaid bills is stressful, and we want to make sure that customers are aware of the true driver of these high bills, while we also offer financial help and energy efficiency solutions to those who qualify. We still have lots of work ahead of us in our efforts to educate consumers. Our team has diligently worked to create informative materials that are widely available on our website and regularly included with paper bills. Additionally, we’re investing $1 billion to focus on serving our customers, with increased bill assistance and expanded protections during extreme temperature events. RG&E will continue to make sure you can easily connect with a person to answer any questions you have. RG&E is committed to providing continuous education and communication to all stakeholders including elected officials, government regulators, and you, our valued customer.
Patricia Nilsen is president and CEO of New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric, subsidiaries of Avangrid Inc.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
I agree with James Bertolone, in that I am not interested in hearing justifications from CEOs. Based on my experience with NYSEG, much of what the CEOs say makes little sense. We’ve been in our house nearly 40 years, and our NYSEG bills have increased all along, but the increases could always be explained by increased use of electronics like computers and electric appliances. We do not use electricity for heating. In addition, we do not have a “smart meter”. Up until October of 2024, our bills ranged from under $100 to $250, which we could explain by comparing estimated bills to the times our meter was read. In October, our bill suddenly jumped to $350, even though we weren’t using any additional electricity. Then a few weeks ago, we got a bill for $752. We knew that the meter had been read recently, but this bill was far outside normal changes due to reading the meter. We called NYSEG and were told to send a picture of the meter in case it was read incorrectly. We did that, but we were also told that we wouldn’t get a response, but just had to wait until we got another bill. Then we would see if our complaint had the desired effect of lowering our bill. It is pretty clear to me that there is something terribly wrong, either in the NYSEG billing department or in the meter reading department. Instead of going to the media and blaming everyone else, including the consumer, CEOs should be taking a good hard look at their own organizations and cleaning up the systems that allow such egregious mistakes to happen. We are responding by looking into installing solar panels. Getting out from under NYSEG’s thumb seems to us like the best solution, if we can swing it.
The real issue is RG&E DELIVERY, FEES and all TAXES. Not the Kilowatt hrs used. The Delivery is 2/3rds of my bill ever since the new smart meter were installed. It does not matter how many LED lights I replaced or how many high efficiency appliances I have to save in energy. RG&E keep sending me those little NOTICES that my neighbors use much less energy? 1st RG&E should be required to send us the NAMES of those NEIGHBORS I WANT The names of those NEIGHBORS? So we could have a friendly conversion and compare notes on how THEY are able to $ave so much more energy and have much lower $ RG&E Bill’s $ ? Stop sending me those $ NOTICES $ with out Neighbors names it only makes me more frustrated cause when I ask any of them they all tell me that they ALL get the SAME $ RG&E NOTICES $.
I am not much interested in the CEO of NYS Electric & Gas and RG&E telling me how their ever-higher rates and profits are justified. The warmer winters in the recent pass have not increased my gas usage, only my bills. I find it curious that the only serious pushback on the East coast to get rid of an investor-owned utility are the two under this CEO and Avangrid in Maine. State regulators are using consultants for investor-owned utilities that come under the umbrella of SURFA, Society of Utility and Regulatory Financial Analysts. They convince regulators to side with corporations, like any corporate financial analysts. About 70% of electricity in the U.S. comes from private for-profit utilities. In the last three years residential electricity rates for these companies have increased an average of 49% HIGHER than inflation, while publicly owned utilities have increased their rates 44% LESS than inflation. Total rate increases for the two groups are not hard to find. Campaign contributions to politicians that appoint or have sway with the regulators are also available. They are not to one political party. Since this company has used their money and power to kill a vote on whether we should even HAVE a discussion and vote to even allow a second vote on the issue, I have no interest in what this CEO has to say.