Rates

Determining how much electricity your appliances and home electronics use can help you understand how much money you are spending to use them. Most appliances and other electrical equipment have a nameplate that indicates the power requirements.

Once you have your data, calculate the cost of use with this formula: 

Multiply the device's wattage by the number of hours the appliance is used per day and divide that by 1000. Take that number and  multiply it by your kWh rate.

For single phase equipment (any residential equipment):

• Watts = volts x amps

For three phase equipment (found in some commercial and most industrial equipment):

• Watts = volts x amps x 1.732 (1.732 is the square root of 3)

To determine the cost of running an appliance, use these formulas:

• Wattage x Hours Used / 1000 = kWh
• kWh x cost of electricity = cost

• Any customer having a check or other form of payment dishonored more than once in a 12-month period may be required to pay by cash or cash-equivalent for the ensuing year.  Checks returned to us for insufficient funds are subject to disconnection immediately.
• If your account is disconnected for nonpayment, a deposit equal to 1/6 of your annual billing may be required in addition to the other fees.

What is PCRF?
Power Cost Recovery Factor "PCRF" is the portion of your bill that will vary monthly based on the current power, transmission and substation cost versus the established cost at the time of our most recent cost of service study.

What is SCRF?
Securitization Cost Recovery Factor "SCRF" is a billing component required to recover monies used to service the debt incurred due to the extraordinary wholesale power cost from Winter Storm URI.

May 2025 Rates

These are the currently approved Tariff Rates which do not include Total PCRF (see above section).

For more information or questions about our Rate Schedule, please email us.

• Residential 1 PH

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $21.00

• Residential 3 PH

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $40.00

• General Service Single Phase less than 24.99 kW

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $21.00

• General Service Three Phase less than 24.99 kW

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $40.00

• General Service Small Single Phase less than 24.99 kW

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $21.00

• General Service Small Three Phase less than 24.99 kW

  kWh Charge - 0.1066

  Availability Charge - $40.00

• General Service Community Single Phase

  kWh Charge - 0.1153

  Availability Charge - $21.00

• General Service Community Three Phase

  kWh Charge - 0.1153

  Availability Charge - $40.00

• General Service Medium Single Phase from 25-149 KW

  kWh Charge - 0.0689

  Demand Charge - $9.30 per KW

  Availability Charge - $50.00

• General Service Medium Three Phase from 25-149 KW

  kWh Charge - 0.0689

  Demand Charge - $9.30 per KW

  Availability Charge - $50.00

• General Service Large Three Phase greater than 149 KW

  kWh Charge - 0.0638

  Demand Charge - $11.85 per KW

  Availability Charge - $200.00

Note: All demand accounts have a 75% ratchet.

Security Light Charges (Monthly Charge)

Installation Fees (Security Lights) 

Residential/General Service Charge

The Residential Service line will show the local costs the cooperative incurs for distributing power from the substation to your meter. This section will include an availability charge. The availability charge covers the fixed costs of having poles, lines and meters in place.

Availability Charge

The availability charge is a monthly charge that HOTEC members pay to help cover the basic cost of bringing electricity to their location. It covers some of the expenses the cooperative incurs regardless of how much electricity is sold. The charge helps cover such things as:

• On-going operation and maintenance of the electrical distribution' system required to bring you electricity at the flip of a switch (hence the name, availability charge);

• Annual depreciation of these facilities;

• Principal and interest payments on the long-term debt to build the facilities originally;

• Expenses related to customer accounting, meter reading, and billing.

Because all cooperative members benefit from having reliable electric service available when they need it, the availability charge allows everyone to pay a share of the basic costs.

Members sometimes ask why HOTEC's availability charge is higher than neighboring electric utilities. It's because of our low consumer density; HOTEC serves an average of six customers per mile of line. Compare this to a city where the average density is easily more than 30 customers per mile of line. It is always more economical to serve areas of higher density. However, HOTEC's average rates remain competitive with those neighboring utilities.

HOTEC serves a diverse membership. Some of our members use a lot of electricity all year long, and some may use electricity only one or two months per year. Whether you use a lot or a little, the cost of getting electric power to your location remains the same. And that is why your electric bill has two separate charges: the availability charge to cover basic costs, and the per kWh charge for the actual amount of electricity consumed.

We hope this brief explanation helps answer your questions about the availability charge portion of your electric bill. Please call us if you have any billing questions.

Wholesale Power Cost

The Wholesale Power Cost line will show the cost of power purchased by the power supplier to Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative, which includes generation, transmission, and independent system operator (ISO) fees.