Quick Answer
Delivery pays for the wires, pipes, meters, and billing that move energy to your house — the utility sets it, and you cannot shop for it. Supply pays for the energy itself, and in roughly a dozen-plus states you can shop for it from competing suppliers. Both appear on one bill from one utility, but they are separate buckets with separate prices, and an increase in one does not mean the other changed.
| Delivery | Supply | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | Wires and pipes, substations, meters, restoring outages, reading meters, billing, customer service | The electricity or gas itself — its market or generated cost |
| Rate basis | Per-kWh charge plus a fixed monthly customer charge | Per-kWh (or per-therm) price; fixed charge separate |
| Who sets it | Your utility, regulated by your state’s public utility commission | Regulated utilities pass it through at cost; suppliers set competitive offers; utilities update it monthly or seasonally |
| Shoppable? | No — one set of wires serves your address | Yes in retail-choice states; no in states where the utility is the only seller |
If you use exactly zero kWh, the delivery bucket’s fixed charge still appears; the supply bucket does not. That asymmetry is the fastest way to tell them apart on your own bill.
What each bucket covers
Delivery is the infrastructure charge. Consumers Energy describes its delivery services as covering the fixed System Access fee ($8.00/month for meters and billing), a per-kWh Distribution charge for carrying electricity from the transmission system to your home, and state-mandated efficiency programs [5]. Con Edison defines its Basic Service Charge — the delivery bucket’s fixed piece — as a flat monthly fee covering meter readings, billing, and customer support [1]. When a storm knocks lines down, restoration crews are paid out of this bucket.
Supply is the energy product. Utilities that buy power for you do it at cost: Con Edison states it buys energy in competitive markets and passes those costs on to you without making a profit [1], and Consumers Energy says the same of its Power Supply Cost Recovery factor: “We do not make a profit from this charge” [5]. Austin Energy’s Power Supply Adjustment works identically — a dollar-for-dollar recovery of fuel and purchased-power costs, reset annually [3].
That pass-through rule explains a recurring bill mystery: utilities treat supply as a zero-margin cost sink, so it moves with fuel markets rather than with utility budgets.
Verified split at real utilities (published rates, not ranges)
| Utility | Supply rate (published) | Delivery rate (published) | Fixed charge | Where published | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Con Edison (NY) residential TOU | 27.86¢/kWh summer peak hours; 17.11¢/kWh other months; 5.22¢/kWh off-peak | 16.402¢/kWh during 8 a.m.–midnight hours | $21.00/mo | Your Guide to Rates and TOU rate page [1][2] | 2026-08-29 |
| Austin Energy (TX, city-owned) | Power Supply Adjustment 4.118¢/kWh (net 3.912¢ after a −0.206¢ admin adjustment) | Tiered Energy Charge 4.640–10.884¢/kWh — bundled, because Austin generates and delivers as one utility [3] | $16.50/mo | Residential rates and line items [3] | 2026-08-30 |
| PG&E (CA) | kWh prices lowered in the March 2026 restructure; not itemized on the page | Not itemized on the page | ~$24.00/mo (CARE ~$6.00, FERA ~$12.00) | Base Services Charge FAQ [4] | 2026-08-30 |
| Consumers Energy (MI) | PSCR factor — costs change monthly, recovered with no markup | Per-kWh Distribution charge on the tariff | $8.00/mo System Access | Electric charges explained [5] | 2026-08-30 |
Notice what the table does not show: no utility publishes one timeless “supply rate.” Supply prices move monthly or seasonally on nearly every tariff — which is why your delivery charge is stable between rate cases while your supply line swings bill to bill.
Regulated vs deregulated: where you can shop
Delivery is never shoppable — one grid serves your address, and the state sets the wires-and-pipes rates through rate cases. Supply is shoppable in retail-choice states: Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and Massachusetts are among the states where you can buy the generation part of your electricity from a licensed supplier while your utility still delivers it and still answers the outage call. Pennsylvania’s official PUC shopping site, PAPowerSwitch, reports 1,429,674 Pennsylvanians have switched suppliers as of July 2026 [6]. If you live in one of the other states, the utility is the only seller of supply — nothing to shop for, and the utility’s own supply prices apply.
Gas bills split the same way, and one gas example keeps this straight: Columbia Gas of Ohio separates its per-Mcf delivery service from the cost of gas itself, which Ohio customers can buy through the state’s choice program under a Standard Choice Offer auctioned monthly — the identical two-bucket structure, one fuel over. The gas-specific mechanics live in our gas delivery charge vs supply charge explainer.
A worked month: where 899 kWh goes
The national average household uses 899 kWh/month at an average 18.34¢/kWh, about $164.88 [7]. Now split a real bill with one utility’s published rates. Take 899 kWh on Con Edison’s time-of-use rate in a non-summer month, all usage overnight off-peak:
- Supply: 899 × 5.22¢ = $46.93
- Delivery: 899 × 16.402¢ = $147.45
- Fixed customer charge: $21.00
- Total: $215.38 — delivery plus the fixed charge takes 78% of the bill
Same month’s usage repriced in summer’s peak windows instead: supply is 27.86¢/kWh, so the supply line jumps to $250.46 — 60% of a $418.92 bill — while delivery never moved. Supply alone nearly doubled the bill. On a city-owned integrated utility like Austin Energy, the same 899 kWh splits about 30/70 — roughly $35 of supply-side pass-through against about $70 of energy/delivery-side charges plus the $16.50 customer charge [3].
The lesson cuts both directions. Shrinking usage shrinks the per-kWh parts of both buckets but not the fixed charge — see the customer charge — and no shopping decision touches delivery, ever.
It is not these other charges
- Fuel adjustment charges are the mechanism by which many utilities move supply costs — a sub-piece of the supply bucket, not a third bucket.
- Demand charges price your peak draw, usually on the delivery side for commercial accounts and some residential TOU rates.
- Taxes and rider surcharges ride on both buckets. For the complete picture of every line on the statement, see the complete guide to understanding your utility bill and the electric bill line-item breakdown.
Can I lower my delivery charges?
Can I shop for supply?
Why did only my supply charge change since last month?
Is delivery the same thing as distribution?
Sources
- Con Edison — Your Guide to Rates (retrieved 2026-08-29)
- Con Edison residential time-of-use rate page — supply 27.86¢ summer peak / 17.11¢ other months / 5.22¢ off-peak, delivery 16.402¢ (8 a.m.–midnight), $21.00 customer charge (retrieved 2026-08-29)
- Austin Energy — Residential Electric Rates and Line Items (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- PG&E — Base Services Charge FAQ (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- Consumers Energy — Electric Charges Explained (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- PAPowerSwitch — the official electric shopping website of the Pennsylvania PUC (retrieved 2026-08-30)
- EIA — How much electricity does an American home use? (899 kWh/month; 18.34¢/kWh national average residential price, retrieved 2026-08-29)
