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Reading Your Bill

At MEC, we know paying bills is no fun, and trying to pay a bill you can’t understand how to read can be downright frustrating. Your power bill is comprised of several key areas.

Disclosures

The back of the first page contains our disclosures and definitions. Many of the answers to common questions can be found here. Of course, if you still have questions about your bill please don’t hesitate to call us at (406) 541-4433.

Bill Body

The body of the bill has all the pertinent information about your meter(s) including opening and closing reads, average daily usage for this year and last and even the average temperature so you can explain some of the annual fluctuations in your bill.

Depending on how many services you pay for, you may have multiple pages on your billing statement. Our bills are now two-sided to save paper and processing costs.

Below are explanations of differing parts of the bill, corresponding to the numbered annotations to the sample bill above.

1) Account Summary

A quick overview showing your account number, statement and due date as well as your amount due. Note your District of Record — this refers to your trustee district. This is the district in which you vote during trustee elections.

2) District of Record

This is the district in which you live. Refer to our Board of Trustees page to see District and Trustee information.

3) Bill Type

This line indicates whether you bill is New, Regular, Past Due or Final.

4) Budget Amount Due

If you are signed up for budget billing, this is the amount you need to pay each month regardless of your actual charges.

5) Service Details

Each service you pay for under your account will have its own detailed section indicating location, meter number and any usage and charges associated with that service.

6) Usage History

This section shows a graph representing the past 13 months of usage. You can also find your average daily energy consumption and the daily cost of electricity in this section.

7) Detail of Charges

Shows how each service location is billed including energy charges, demand charges (if applicable) and base charges.

8) Payment Stub

The bottom third of the page is called the payment coupon and has all the information needed for us to process your payment. In this area, you will see your account number, statement period, due date and the amount due. If your bill had to be estimated or if your account is enrolled in automatic payments, that will be indicated here as well.

Detach and include with your payment in the provided envelope.

If for any reason, you are unable to pay your bill in full, please contact MEC to make a payment arrangement — it will save you a lot of worries and help avoid any fees or penalties.