Residential Rates

The Energy Cost Adjustment (ECA) reflects fluctuation cost to purchase electricity and the fuel to produce electricity. An increase or decrease in the ECA is dependent on market conditions. It adjusts monthly to pass costs through to customers’ bills. The ECA is based on a rolling 12-month average of SMU’s cost for purchased power.

An ECA surcharge is included each month as the cost of purchasing and producing electricity increases or decreases. SMU increases or decreases the monthly surcharge on your bill to cover any additional costs of generating electricity.

The rising cost of fuel, primarily natural gas, that is used to generate electricity is the primary driver behind rising electricity costs. Sometimes the ECA may decrease.

Unfortunately, no. You can rest assured SMU will never make a profit off our customers’ added burden. By law, an ECA must go directly toward covering the increasing or decreasing costs. Nothing more, nothing less.

While our state and community often benefit from a low cost of living, energy prices are rising nationwide. For some natural gas and propane users, their energy bill will increase at a higher rate. For customers like you, SMU has a proven record of managing costs to keep rates as low as possible. That commitment to you will never change. According to the 2012 electric rate study by the American Public Power Association (APPA), SMU residential electric customers paid the lowest rate of any residential customer in the state of Iowa in 2012 at 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour. The data used in the study is what each utility reports to the Department of Energy and it is the average revenue per kilowatt hour. The average revenue consists of the rate, meter charge and ECA for SMU customers.

You can look at the energy efficiency of your home and the SMU Resource Conservation program can help with some improvements. You and SMU can work together to make the best use of resources as well as helping keep electric costs down.