The Access Charge is a monthly charge on your electric bill that covers the fixed cost of delivering electric service to your home or business. Included in the Access Charge is the cost of poles, wires, transformers, having employees and crews available 24/7, meters, trucks, and other equipment that makes it possible to serve you—even if you don’t use a single kilowatt-hour of electricity.
Most essential utilities like water, internet and cable include a base charge. Electricity is no different—flipping a switch relies on a system that’s ready when you need it.
Why do we have a fixed charge?
If all costs were tied to energy use, members who use very little electricity—such as hunting cabins and seasonal homes—wouldn’t pay their share toward the infrastructure they still rely on. Meanwhile, full-time residential members would carry more than their fair share.
Another challenge: energy use fluctuates with the weather but the cost to maintain the system doesn’t. In mild months, when usage drops, so does the amount of revenue collected through energy charges. But our fixed expenses remain constant year-round.
The Access Charge provides a stable source of funding to keep your electric service dependable, no matter the season or how much energy our members use.
Line density matters
One of the factors that affects the Access Charge is member density—or how many meters are served per mile of power line.
Most investor-owned utilities serve more than 30 customers per mile of line. In contrast, CEC serves less than 9 members per mile. That means fewer members share the cost of maintaining each mile of infrastructure, which increases the per-member cost to provide service.
All electric utilities have an Access Charge, but often it’s grouped in the total calculation on customer bills.
The true cost of service
According to our 2024 cost of service study, the Access Charge is where it needs to be at this time to fully recover the fixed costs of maintaining electric service for full-time residential and business CEC members.
CEC recovers part of those fixed costs through the energy (kWh) charge (the actual electricity used over time during a billing cycle).
This cost-of-service approach spreads the expense across the membership, so that all members pay their share of the expenses.
A commitment to transparency
Unlike other utilities, CEC provides an itemized bill that breaks down what you’re paying for. That’s because we believe members deserve to see exactly where your money is going—and how you can control those costs. This reflects the cooperative difference. We answer to our members, not shareholders.
We’re here when you have questions
If you have any issues or questions with CEC, we strongly encourage you to reach out to us directly and get the facts straight from the source. Don’t rely on widespread misinformation.