Whether you're going through your household bills or planning the annual budget for your business, you want to know what you're paying for and understand what you're being charged.

Typical residential and business bills include the following items:

• Customer Charge – This fixed monthly amount covers the cost of providing service to your location. These charges are billed monthly regardless if any service is used.
  
  
• Distribution Charge – This is a grouping of several costs including your base rate, a charge for energy conservation programs, legacy pipeline replacement and other costs. The portion of the distribution charge that will change as a result of our rate request is the base rate. The non-base rate portions make up less than half of the grouping and are adjusted annually. This grouping is calculated based on your usage.
  
  
• PGA Charge – The Purchased Gas Adjustment is the cost of gas purchased for you by Peoples Gas and delivered to your premises.
  
  
• Swing Charge – This charge covers the costs that are incurred by Peoples Gas to balance the difference between a customer's actual daily usage and the gas delivered by your third-party gas supplier.
  
  
• Florida Gross Receipts Tax – A tax is imposed on gross receipts from utility services that are delivered to retail customers in Florida, in accordance with Chapter 203 of the Florida Statutes. The tax is levied on utility companies, which collect the tax from all customers, unless exempt, and remit to the state.
  
  
• Franchise Fee – This fee is levied by a municipality for the right to utilize public property for the purpose of providing natural gas service. Like taxes, the fee is collected by Peoples Gas and is remitted to the municipality.

Base rates are part of the Customer Charge and the Distribution Charge line items on your bill.

Learn more about residential and business rates and charges.