Understanding Your Bill

Energy bills can be confusing with so many different charges and credits, it almost seems as if they were meant to be confusing! Let us help you understand who is charging what and what each charge represents.

Statement Date: This is the date that your bill was generated on.
Charge Period: These are the dates you that your current bill reflects.
Amount Due: This is the amount that your current bill is for; it will be withdrawn automatically from your account 7 days after you receive your bill.
Customer ID: This is your personal Astro Energy ID number; you can use it to reference your account when registering for your online account or when speaking with any of our friendly customer service representatives
Account ID: This is the account ID for the particular property or site; you will have a unique account ID for each individual site you have registered with Astro Energy.
Site ID: This is what utility companies use as an address for your meter; each meter will have it’s own site ID.
For Service at: This is the actual address of your property or site.
Current Rate: This is the current rate plan that you are on with Astro Energy, you can change your rate plan at any time online through your “My Account”.
Previous Charges and Credits: Your last payment and/or credit will appear here for your review.
Balance Forward: Any credit or charge carried forward from a previous month can be found here.
Current Charges: This is a breakdown of the current months charges and credits.
Energy Charge: Here you can see the cost of electricity and the amount of kWh (energy) that you have used. Astro Energy negotiates with the Generators to provide the lowest possible rates and then adds a small margin onto this charge.
Admin Charge: This is a charge that Astro Energy collects to provide billing, customer service and web support to you.
Balancing Pool Allocation: This is a charge or credit (typically credit) provided by the balancing pool based on a shortfall or excess of funds held in Alberta’s Balancing Pool.
Delivery Charges: This charge is collected by Astro Energy and remitted to the wire owner in your area to cover their cost of delivering electricity. Astro Energy does not make any profit on this charge as it is a regulated charge and is paid directly to the wire owner.
Transmission Charges: This charge is collected by Astro Energy and remitted to the wire owner in your area to cover their cost of operating the transmission of electricity. Astro Energy does not make any profit on this charge as it is a regulated charge and is paid directly to the wire owner.
Local Access Fee: This charge is collected by Astro Energy and remitted to the municipality in your area to cover their cost of access to municipal land. Astro Energy does not make any profit on this charge as it is a regulated charge and is paid directly to the municipality.
Rate Rider: This is a temporary charge or credit that is approved by the Alberta Energy Regulator and is collected or distributed by them or to them.
Subtotal: This is your (almost) total charges; the sum of all the energy charge, admin charge, balancing pool, delivery charge, transmission charge, local access fee and rate rider.
Total: This is a sum of all your charges for the month plus GST, which of course is remitted to the federal government.
Withdrawal Date: This is the date you can expect the funds to be withdrawn from your account to cover your utility bill.
Percent Allocation of Current Statement Charges: This coloured pie chart gives you a quick visual on what percentage of your current bill is being spent on which particular charges.
Statement Charge History: This bar graph gives you a quick snapshot of your previous billing history broken apart with the same colours as the pie chart, here you can see which months have the highest or lowest cost.
Usage by Calendar Month: This bar graph gives you a history of you usage so you can quickly see which months you use more or less energy, as well as if you are trending higher or lower in your energy usage.
Statement Charge History Table: This table provides a detailed breakdown of past bills and has each charge broken apart for your viewing pleasure.