What is the Fixed Charge that appears on my bill?
The Fixed Charge covers many costs of safe, reliable delivery. Some customers wonder why WPS includes a Fixed Charge at all. They view it as a charge “for nothing” and would prefer to be billed based strictly on their gas use, but that doesn’t take into consideration everything that’s involved in providing natural gas service. Many costs of providing gas service are fixed. That is, they exist regardless of how much gas a customer uses. Fixed costs include such things as: • The gas piping that’s required to deliver gas. • Labor and supplies required to maintain the gas main • Labor and supplies to read the meter • Qualified people to respond to gas emergencies The Fixed Charge is designed to partially cover these fixed costs, which aren’t directly related to the amount of gas used. When fixed costs are collected based on the amount of gas a customer uses-rather than through a Fixed Charge-mismatches can occur between the actual costs of the service and the bills customers receive.
