Private in-browser planning
Electricity Annual Cost Projection Tool
Starting values are hypothetical. Replace them with your own figures. Inputs stay in this browser and are not included in the energy inquiry.
- Usage and rate percentage effects multiply. These are assumptions, not a forecast.
- Average monthly funding is not a seasonal cash-flow schedule.
Build a baseline that can be explained
Start with a complete year of electricity consumption and an applicable supply-rate basis. Record whether the rate is an executed fixed rate, a historical weighted rate or an explicit planning assumption. If the baseline includes delivery and demand in an all-in rate, do not also add the same components in the other-charges field.
Use the other-charge allowance for costs held constant in this simplified model. In reality, demand, delivery and taxes may vary with usage or tariffs. If those changes matter, build a component or monthly model instead of disguising them inside an unchanged total. The tool’s baseline cost is usage times supply rate plus the entered allowance.
Keep usage change separate from rate change
Usage growth may reflect added equipment, longer hours, a new production line or a planned efficiency change. The rate-change percentage is a separate planning case. Neither is inferred from the building’s ZIP code or a market feed. Negative values represent a decrease; a minus-one-hundred-percent change reduces the corresponding usage or rate to zero.
Projected kWh equals baseline kWh multiplied by one plus usage growth. Projected rate equals baseline rate multiplied by one plus rate change. Projected cost is projected kWh times projected rate plus unchanged other charges. The two percentage effects multiply, so adding them together is not an exact way to calculate the combined spending change.
A worked example of the interaction
A hypothetical baseline of 120,000 kWh at $0.10 per kWh creates $12,000 in supply cost. With five-percent usage growth and a ten-percent rate increase, projected use is 126,000 kWh and projected rate is $0.11. Supply cost becomes $13,860, a fifteen-and-a-half-percent increase in the supply component.
If unchanged other charges are $6,000, total baseline cost is $18,000 and projected total is $19,860. The total percentage increase is smaller because that allowance is held constant. The average monthly funding amount is the annual projection divided by twelve; it is not a claim that each month’s bill will equal that amount.
Use multiple cases and preserve the assumptions
Run a separate case for a delayed expansion, lower occupancy or a different rate assumption. Keep each case labeled and retain the baseline bills and operational rationale. A single point estimate can create false confidence when both future load and price are uncertain. Monthly forecasts are preferable where seasonal usage, contract start dates or equipment commissioning materially affect the result.
This projection does not obtain quotes, predict demand peaks, update tariffs or model a contract renewal automatically. It helps show the arithmetic effect of assumptions chosen by the user. Use the budget tool to add an explicit reserve, the price-scenario tool to isolate price exposure, and the bill component estimator when you need to see how the total is assembled from energy, demand and fixed charges.
Sources & scope
Primary references reviewed October 15, 2026. These sources support the stated concepts; actual tariffs, program rules and signed agreements govern the account. Decision examples and operational worksheets are original educational analysis.
- EIA: Electricity prices and factors affecting prices
Electricity pricing depends on fuel costs, weather, generation and grid costs, regulations and customer circumstances. No published average is used as a quote. - DOE FEMP: Evaluating Your Utility Rate Options
Energy charges, demand charges, fixed charges and tariff structures; practical limits of simplified rate calculations.