Lucy A. here from Plano. Working on a client account in Georgia and I'm seeing what looks like a hidden demand charge in their Georgia Power Schedule GS-2 tariff. The monthly bill shows $847 in "Distribution Facilities Charge" that doesn't seem to match anything in the published rate schedule. Has anyone else run into this? The customer's peak demand was 187 kW last month.
Georgia Power Schedule GS-2 hidden demand charge?
Randy Dawson here. That Distribution Facilities Charge is actually in the GS-2 tariff but it's buried in Section 4.3 under "Additional Charges." Georgia Power applies it when the customer's transformer capacity exceeds 150 kVA. At 187 kW your client likely has a 300 kVA transformer so you're looking at the Tier 2 charge of $4.53 per kVA monthly. That works out to about $1,359 for a 300 kVA unit, so $847 suggests they might have a smaller transformer or partial month billing.
Bernard P. in Virginia. We see similar charges here with Dominion Energy but they call it "Facilities Charge" instead. Always check the fine print sections - utilities love hiding these charges in subsections that don't show up in the main rate summary tables.
Thanks Randy D. and Bernard P.! Found it in Section 4.3 exactly where you said. Client has a 225 kVA transformer so the math works out perfectly. Appreciate you both saving me hours of digging through PSC dockets.