Utility Fixed Monthly Customer Charges (2026 Reference)
What does my utility charge even if I use 0 kWh? For the 18 utilities below, the answer ranges from $4.39/month at the bottom of the list to $14.13/month at PPL Electric Utilities — a fee you pay before a single watt flows.
Quick answer
The fixed monthly customer charge — what you pay before consuming any electricity — ranges from $4.39 at the lowest utility in our footprint to $14.13 at PPL Electric Utilities. Footprint average: $7.52/month. The charge belongs to the wires company, not your supplier, so switching retail providers does not lower it.
What is a fixed monthly charge?
Every electric bill in America has two halves. One half scales with how much you use — kilowatt-hours times a rate. The other half is fixed: a flat monthly charge your utility bills whether you use 50 kWh or 5,000. That second half is what this page documents.
Utilities call it different things on different bills. "Customer charge." "Basic service charge." "Distribution service charge." "Meter charge." They mean the same thing: the per-month fee your utility recovers from you for the privilege of being connected to the grid. Cost recovery for meters, billing, service drops, and customer service. It sits on the delivery side of the bill — the part you cannot shop, the part that does not change when you switch suppliers.
We pulled the customer charge from each utility's most recently filed default residential tariff in NREL's Utility Rate Database. URDB carries the official figure (URDB calls the field fixedChargeFirstMeter) as filed with each state's public utility commission. Source PDFs are linked in the table.
Fixed monthly charges — full ranking
All 18 utilities in the ElectricRates.org footprint. Click column headers to sort.
| Rank | Utility | State | $/Month | $/Year @ 0 kWh | Tier | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PPL Electric Utilities | Pennsylvania | $14.13 | $169.56 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 2 | Duquesne Light | Pennsylvania | $12.50 | $150.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 3 | Eversource Energy (MA) | Massachusetts | $10.00 | $120.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 4 | National Grid (MA) | Massachusetts | $10.00 | $120.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 5 | Met-Ed (FirstEnergy) | Pennsylvania | $9.16 | $109.92 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 6 | Penelec (FirstEnergy) | Pennsylvania | $9.16 | $109.92 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 7 | AEP Texas | Texas | $9.00 | $108.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 8 | PECO Energy | Pennsylvania | $8.45 | $101.40 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 9 | AEP Ohio | Ohio | $8.40 | $100.80 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 10 | Nantucket Electric | Massachusetts | $7.00 | $84.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 11 | Duke Energy Ohio | Ohio | $6.00 | $72.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 12 | AES Ohio (Dayton Power & Light) | Ohio | $6.00 | $72.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 13 | West Penn Power | Pennsylvania | $5.00 | $60.00 | Typical | Tariff PDF |
| 14 | CenterPoint Energy Houston | Texas | $4.39 | $52.68 | Low | Tariff PDF |
| 15 | Oncor Electric Delivery | Texas | $4.23 | $50.76 | Low | Tariff PDF |
| 16 | Ohio Edison | Ohio | $4.00 | $48.00 | Low | Tariff PDF |
| 17 | Toledo Edison | Ohio | $4.00 | $48.00 | Low | Tariff PDF |
| 18 | Cleveland Electric Illuminating | Ohio | $4.00 | $48.00 | Low | Tariff PDF |
Why fixed charges vary so much
A $4 customer charge in Toledo and a $14 customer charge in Allentown reflect 30 years of separate rate cases at separate public utility commissions. The headline driver is regulatory philosophy: state PUCs that favor a high "minimum bill" view the fixed charge as covering legitimate infrastructure costs that don't depend on usage. PUCs that favor a low minimum bill push utilities to recover those costs through volumetric ($/kWh) rates instead. The same dollars get collected either way — but the bill structure changes who pays what.
A few patterns hold across our footprint:
- FirstEnergy companies in Ohio (Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, Cleveland Illuminating) all sit at $4.00 — the lowest in our footprint. Pennsylvania PUC settlements have pushed FirstEnergy's PA subsidiaries to a $9.16 charge.
- Pennsylvania tends to allow higher fixed charges than Ohio. PPL's $14.13 charge is the high water mark.
- Massachusetts investor-owned utilities cluster at $10.00 — the same charge for Eversource and National Grid, set by recent DPU rate orders.
- Texas TDUs are an apples-to-oranges comparison. Texas residential customers pay a delivery customer charge to the TDU and a separate energy/service charge to their retail electric provider. The fixed-charge number here is delivery only.
What this means for your bill
If you're a low-usage household — apartment, frequent traveler, person who's mostly on solar — the fixed charge is the line item that hurts most. At 200 kWh/month, a $14 fixed charge alone adds 7¢/kWh to your effective rate. At 2,000 kWh/month, it adds less than 1¢. The lower your usage, the more aggressively the fixed charge eats into your savings.
You cannot escape it by switching suppliers. In every deregulated state, the fixed charge belongs to the wires company. Switching saves you on the supply side; the delivery side is set by the regulated rate. The most actionable response is to size your savings against the supply portion of your bill — which is exactly what our Bill Grade tool measures — in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fixed monthly customer charge?
The fixed monthly customer charge — also called a "basic service charge," "customer charge," or "base charge" — is a flat fee your electric utility bills every month regardless of how much electricity you use. Even if your home produced enough rooftop solar to use zero kWh from the grid, you would still pay this charge.
Why do utilities charge a fixed monthly fee?
Utilities argue the fixed charge covers the cost of having infrastructure connected to your home — the meter, the service drop, billing, customer service — costs they incur whether you use 100 kWh or 2,000 kWh. Consumer advocates argue high fixed charges shift cost from heavy users to light users and remove the financial incentive to conserve.
Can I avoid the fixed charge by switching electricity providers?
No. The fixed charge is paid to your utility (the distribution company that owns the wires), not your retail electric supplier. In deregulated states, you can shop for the energy portion of your bill but the delivery charges — including the fixed monthly charge — stay the same.
Which utility has the highest fixed monthly charge?
Among the 19 utilities we track, PPL Electric in Pennsylvania has the highest residential customer charge at $14.13/month. Massachusetts utilities Eversource and National Grid follow at $10.00/month.
Which utility has the lowest fixed monthly charge?
Ohio Edison, Toledo Edison, and Cleveland Electric Illuminating — all FirstEnergy companies in Ohio — charge just $4.00/month. Oncor and CenterPoint in Texas have similarly low base charges, but Texas customers pay TDU delivery on top of supply purchased from a competing retail electric provider.