Starting this month, JPS customers will pay a smaller percentage of the cost of the fuel used to generate electricity. The new efficiency targets set by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) in its recent Rate Deter-mination will result in a reduction of approximately four per cent in the fuel costs passed on to JPS customers.

The fuel charge on customers' electricity bills reflects the cost of the fuel JPS uses to generate electricity each month. JPS, however, has to absorb some of these costs, depending on how efficiently it uses the fuel in the process of generating electricity.

As part of the recent tariff review, the OUR established a new heat rate target for JPS, which will have the effect of reducing the percentage of fuel costs passed on to customers.

The heat rate target measures the efficiency with which a utility uses fuel in the process of generating electricity. JPS' heat rate target has been reduced from 11,200 kilojoules per kilowatt-hour (kJ/kWh) to a new target of 10,400 (kJ/kWh). With the lowered heat rate target, JPS will have to absorb more of the cost of the fuel used to generate electricity.