Worse for many companies, FirstEnergy has streamlined its rate structure, from about 120 separate rate tariffs to just 24. The simpler structure doesn’t give discounts for increased demand.
Instead, said Matthew Brakey of EnergyManager.com & Brakey Consulting, the new tariffs will give lower rates to industrial customers who can take higher voltages – power at voltage levels that have not had to move through a series of transformers in order to be stepped down to what residential or commercial customers would typically receive.
The concept is that the higher the voltage, the less line loss between the power plant and the customer, and therefore the lower the cost, Brakey said.
Brakey said his commercial and industrial clients could see increases as high as 32 percent or decreases as low as 24 percent, depending on the voltage they can accept and the kind of electric load their companies represent.
