The Know Your Rates Act amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require certain electric and gas utilities to transmit standardized consumption and billing information directly to their customers. Utilities covered by the bill must include specific line-item information on each bill and run a program that sends usage notices during the billing cycle and optional consumer-selected dollar-threshold alerts.
For professionals in utilities, regulatory compliance, and consumer protection, the bill creates new operational requirements (metering, billing-system changes, notification mechanisms) and a narrow federal floor for customer-facing transparency. It does not change rates, but it does change what customers must receive and how utilities must monitor and report consumption during an active billing period.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds consumer-information standards to PURPA: covered electric and gas utilities must include a dollar-difference line and average monthly consumption on each bill, and must operate a notification program that alerts customers during the billing period if consumption is above prior-period averages and offers optional dollar-threshold alerts.
Who It Affects
Covered utilities—defined as electric or gas utilities that receive federal funding as determined by the Commission—along with their residential and small commercial customers, billing and IT vendors, and state utility regulators tasked with integrating these federal minimums into existing frameworks.
Why It Matters
This creates a federal transparency floor that aims to reduce 'bill shock' and support conservation without altering tariffs. Practically, it forces near-term investments in metering, billing systems, and notification workflows and raises questions about cost recovery, enforcement, and how the federal standard will interact with state billing rules.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill works through two parallel edits to PURPA: one set for electric utilities and one for gas utilities. For each, it directs the statutory sections that govern consumer information to require a program under which a covered utility transmits specific billing information and mid-cycle usage notices.
The mandate is informational only: the utilities must tell customers how much they used (and what it cost), and warn them if current consumption exceeds the previous billing period’s daily average.
Under the program each covered utility must include, on every bill, the difference in dollars between the current and prior billing periods and the consumer’s average monthly consumption expressed both in dollars and in the relevant energy unit (kilowatt-hours for electricity; therms for gas). The bill also requires an active notification process during the billing cycle when a consumer’s average daily use exceeds the prior period’s average and allows consumers to opt into an alert that notifies them when they hit a consumer-selected dollar threshold within an ongoing billing cycle.The term 'covered' is not universal: the bill limits application to utilities that receive federal funding ‘‘as determined by the Commission’’ (the PURPA-defined Commission, i.e., FERC).
That creates a federal minimum obligation that will apply unevenly depending on whether a utility has federal funding. The statutory edits do not change rate-setting or price structures; they add reporting and customer-notification duties.Implementation will require utilities to align metering intervals, compute average daily consumption comparisons for each account, and build or buy notification systems that can trigger mid-cycle alerts.
The bill leaves the Commission with a role in determining which utilities are covered by federal funding, but it does not specify enforcement mechanisms, recovery rules for compliance costs, or a format for how notices must be delivered (paper, email, SMS, in-app), so many practical decisions will fall to utilities and state commissions during rollout.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Each bill must include a line showing the dollar difference between the amount charged in the current billing period and the previous billing period.
Bills must show the consumer’s average monthly consumption in both dollars and energy units—kilowatt-hours for electricity and therms for gas.
Utilities must deliver mid-cycle usage notices if an account’s average daily consumption during the early portion of the billing cycle exceeds the prior billing period’s average daily consumption; the bill specifies two notification points within the billing period (near day 10 and near day 20) or the consumer’s chosen alternate date.
Utilities must offer an optional, consumer-set alert that notifies the account holder when cumulative charges within the active billing period reach a dollar threshold chosen by the consumer.
The statute applies only to 'covered' utilities—those that receive federal funding as determined by the Commission—so the obligation is tied to federal funding status rather than utility size or customer class.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Short title — 'Know Your Rates Act'
This is the bill’s formal short title. It signals the legislative intent—transparency of rates and usage—but contains no substantive rulemaking language. Practically, it helps readers and dockets identify the statutory package being altered.
Electric utilities: new consumer-information program and billing contents
The bill replaces the existing text of 16 U.S.C. 2623(b)(3) to require electric utilities to transmit information about rate schedules and consumption 'in accordance with the requirements of section 115(f).' It then adds a new paragraph to section 115(f) that obligates each 'covered electric utility' to establish a program that (a) includes two specific billing elements on each bill (dollar difference vs prior bill; average monthly consumption in dollars and kWh) and (b) operates mid-cycle usage notices and an optional consumer-directed dollar-threshold alert. The practical consequence is a direct federal requirement for account-level monitoring and customer-facing billing detail for covered electric utilities; it does not prescribe the delivery medium or enforcement mechanism.
Gas utilities: mirror of electric rules for gas consumption
The bill inserts parallel language into the gas-consumer sections of PURPA (15 U.S.C. 3203–3204). Covered gas utilities must include the same dollar-difference and average-monthly-consumption elements on each bill (with therms as the unit) and must provide analogous early-period usage notices and optional dollar-threshold alerts. By mirroring the electric standard, Congress creates parallel transparency obligations for both fuels without altering underlying gas rate-setting authorities.
Covered utility tied to federal funding; Commission determines coverage
Both the electric and gas additions define 'covered' utilities as those 'that receive funding from Federal sources, as determined by the Commission.' This delegates a critical gatekeeping determination to the Commission (FERC). That delegation is compact but consequential: whether a utility must comply will depend on the Commission’s approach to what counts as federal funding (grants, loans, formula assistance, ARPA/IIJA funds, etc.). The bill does not include a bright-line funding threshold or list of funded programs, so the Commission will need to issue guidance or a rule to operationalize coverage.
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Explore Energy in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Residential electricity and gas customers: They receive clearer, standardized information on how their consumption and dollar charges change period-to-period and get mid-cycle warnings that can reduce 'bill shock' and enable earlier conservation.
- Consumer advocates and state regulators: Improved, regularized customer-facing data creates a baseline for complaint handling, comparative metrics, and targeted outreach to high-usage accounts.
- Energy-efficiency and demand-management providers: More timely and standardized consumption notifications create an opportunity for third-party programs and products (apps, alerts, automated controls) that help customers respond to mid-cycle usage warnings.
Who Bears the Cost
- Covered utilities: They must modify billing systems, account-level consumption calculations, and notification platforms; utilities without advanced metering infrastructure face capital and operational upgrades.
- Billing and IT vendors: Vendors will need to develop products or customizations to deliver the mandated line items and mid-cycle notifications, generating new development and maintenance work.
- State utility commissions and the Commission (FERC): Regulators will face workload to interpret 'federal funding' coverage, integrate federal minimums with state billing rules, and adjudicate disputes without clear enforcement language or federal recovery guidance.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill pits two legitimate goals against each other: consumers’ right to timely, actionable billing information to avoid surprise charges versus the operational and financial burden of retrofitting metering, billing, and notification systems (and protecting the resulting data). Solving for transparency quickly risks excessive compliance costs and implementation mismatches; deferring implementation or narrowing coverage preserves utility budgets but leaves many customers without the promised protections.
The bill creates a straightforward federal minimum for consumer information but leaves major implementation questions open. It delegates the definition of which utilities are 'covered' to the Commission without listing covered funding streams or setting a timing rule for the Commission’s determination; that gap will determine the law’s real reach and could delay enforcement.
The statute specifies required content and two early-period notification points, but it does not prescribe delivery methods, privacy safeguards, or standards for meter-read frequency and accuracy—areas that will materially affect cost and effectiveness.
Enforcement and cost recovery are ambiguous. The bill imposes affirmative duties on covered utilities but contains no penalty, civil remedy, or explicit mechanism for cost recovery through rates.
Utilities will likely seek recovery of implementation costs from state regulators, creating contested proceedings and potential rate impacts. There is also a potential equity and operational tension: the notice regime assumes utilities can reliably compute average daily consumption early in a billing period, which depends on meter-read frequency, estimated reads, and account-level data quality; inaccuracies risk false alarms or missed warnings.
Finally, limiting the rule to federally funded utilities raises fairness questions—customers served by utilities without federal funding get no federal-floor protections, and states may respond with their own patchwork requirements.
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