Budget Plan
The Budget Plan Takes the Guesswork out of Monthly Bills
See if it’s right for you.
A Budget Plan makes it easier to anticipate your monthly energy costs and plan your household budget. Your monthly charge is calculated based on the energy usage over the past 12 months and is periodically reviewed to either increase or decrease based on your actual usage, and any changes in energy costs. You will still pay only for the total amount of energy you use in a year, but the Budget Plan makes it easier to anticipate your monthly energy costs and budget your operating costs.
While the Budget Plan makes your bill more predictable, there are factors such as extreme weather, energy prices, or changes to your daily operations (such as more or less operating hours effecting how much energy you use. That’s why we continue to read your meter. These factors are reviewed every three to six months and an adjustment may be made to your monthly payment amount at that time so that a large end-of-the-year discrepancy is avoided. Also, your payment must be made on-time each month, or your plan will automatically stop and you will be responsible for the total amount due at that time.
The answers to these frequently asked questions below may help you decide if Budget Plan is an option to help you manage your monthly energy bills.
Yes. Customers whose accounts are in arrears (meaning bills that are 30 days or older) must first agree to enter into a deferred payment arrangement which helps you pay off the past due balance. Read more on the descriptions of these plans.
If you’ve just paid a bill, it can take up to three days for your payment to clear and your account to become eligible for the budget plan. Please check back in three days. We apologize for any inconvenience.
We recommend that business customers wait 12 months before enrolling in the Budget Plan. We set the amount of your monthly Budget Plan amount based on the property's past energy usage during the previous year. We estimate that usage to determine your average monthly payment. As a business customer, your energy usage could differ greatly from the occupant before you.
An operating change, such as the number of hours of daily operation, or a change in equipment used can increase or decrease your energy use. That usage will be used to calculate actual costs to date. If those costs differ greatly from your budget amount, there may be an adjustment during the review period to avoid a larger discrepancy at the end of the budget plan year.
Warmer or colder temperatures will change the amount of energy it takes to cool or heat your business which could also cause your monthly budget amount to change.
You may enroll any time of the year. The Budget Plan is a 12-month plan, starting with the month you join. If your bills tend to be higher/lower at certain times of the year you may pay more or less when you start your Budget Plan payments. This is not a discount program, but helps to take the “peaks and valleys out of your bills.” At the end of the 12 month period, you will only be charged for the energy you used during the year.
No. Customers who use another supplier will have only their delivery charges included in the Balanced Billing. Please contact your ESCO to see if they offer this option for your supplier charges.
We look at your usage and the cost of the energy being used every four months to make sure it is as accurate as possible and may make adjustments to reflect that in your bill. You will be notified on your bill a month ahead of time if your plan needs to be adjusted. That way, there are no surprises at the end of each month or the year.
Although we do check your usage and make adjustments throughout the year, it could happen that we have overcharged or undercharged you by the end of the year. We treat the 12th month of the budget plan as a “settlement month” in such cases. If you paid for more than you actually used over the plan year, we will reduce that month’s bill to reflect your credit. If you didn’t pay enough to cover usage for the year, you can choose to either pay the amount over the next 12 months or pay one lump sum in the 12th month.
Absolutely! You can enroll in our popular automated payments program or any of our other billing options.
*NOTE: We do not recommend that Large Commercial & Industrial customers enroll in the Budget Plan. This includes customers on a SC-4A, 4A-CNG, or 4B rate. This information can be found in the ‘Detail of Current Charges’ section located under ‘Delivery Services’. We recommend that business customers wait until they have been at the property for at least 12 months before enrolling in the budget plan.