What is a  Basic Facility Charge?

When you receive a PWC bill for your electric, water or sanitary sewer service,  each utility service includes a  Basic Facility Charge. 

Nearly all utilities have a basic facility charge for their services, but they may not list it separately from the usage charge as PWC does on our bills.

A Basic Facility Charge is an investment per service that helps PWC cover expenses of maintaining the overall utility system.

It ensures you have access to safe and reliable services when you need them as it covers all the basic costs of bringing electricity or water services to your home, or carrying wastewater away from your home for treatment. 

These basic costs are “fixed”, which means PWC has to pay these expenses, regardless of how much electricity or water is used.  So whether you use a lot or a little of a service, the cost of providing the services to your home remains the same.

For PWC, these costs include maintaining over 49,000 power poles, 1,480 miles of power lines, 30 electric substations, 2,700 miles of water & sewer mains as well as equipment, meters, billing and staffing. 

If you receive more than one PWC utility service, you have a basic facility charge for each service as there are different expenses associated with each type of service.

These costs are reviewed periodically to ensure that all essential expenses are covered.  Because all customers benefit from having reliable services available when they need them, the basic facility charge ensures that all customers pay their fair share of the basic costs.