NES Customer Charge

What is the NES Customer Charge? 

Every customer pays a monthly customer charge.  The fee helps to cover some of NES' fixed costs for providing service to our customers such as meter installation, maintenance, meter reading, transformers, tree trimming, poles, payment processing, postage, and customer service.

I noticed on my bill that the customer charge has gone up.  Why?

The customer charge went from $8.39 to $11.72 in October 2009.  This was due to a 3% NES rate increase in which a portion of the increase was applied to the customer charge and the remaining amount was applied to the base energy rate.  Like all other businesses, NES’ fixed costs have increased steadily and the customer charge is necessary to cover the cost of providing service to customers.  In April 2011, the customer charge went from $11.72 to $11.83 because TVA reduced the residential hydro credit from $1.71 to $1.60. 

Do other utilities have a customer charge?  

Yes they do.  In comparison to other distributors in the Tennessee Valley, the minimum residential customer charge is $4.67 and the maximum is $19.04.  The last time the NES customer charge was adjusted was in April 2006.  

Do all residential customers pay the same customer charge?

Yes.