Late in February, a vigorous discussion began on the Larchmont area’s nextdoor.com site questioning a significant uptick in residential Con Edison charges. Some of the discussion can be found below.

We decided to talk to Con Ed and get some answers as to why some people were seeing heating bills up to $1000 a month, in some cases, when some say they were actually using less energy.

According to Con Ed Spokesman Philip O’Brien, the best way to understand your bill is to note that it is divided into three sections:

Supply:  The rate for your gas or electricity supply is based on the price of the commodity in the market. “We buy it, and by law have to charge customers the same amount we pay for it, not a penny more”, says O’Brien.

Delivery: The delivery charges pay for maintenance of the grid, such as wages, and overhead. These fees are regulated by the Public Service Commission. If usage goes up, delivery fees go up.  You can choose your Energy Service Provider (ESCO) in an effort to save money, but “ESCOs have to increase their own supply charges when costs go up because they are using the Con Ed infrastructure,” O’Brien said. That’s why some people lock in a long-term rate with an ESCO.

Taxes:  “This is something we have no control over,” says Con Ed Spokesman O’Brien. 29%, (yes 29%!) of the bill is taxes. “We become the collection agency for the government.”

On top of this, there was a Con Ed rate increase between December, 2018 and January, 2019. It was the third leg of a three year increase.

On Friday, we will tell you why supplies of  Natural Gas are dwindling, how the State is dealing with this and what some customers are doing about it.