Seco is a Coop. That fee is your membership fee for being part of the Coop. Stop complaining!

I have Leesburg electric in Florida and it appears they don't have a daily service charge but I believe their kwh rate is higher than SECO (which works out good for me because I'm a snowbird). Up in NY I have PSEG and while their daily service fee is about $.50/day they have other fees calculated by usage (NOT taxes) that push the service fee up to over $1.00 with absolutely minimal use. However, I compared the two bills and both had roughly 1000 kwh and my Leesburg bill is almost half the PSEG bill ($135 vs $250 with taxes). I had SECO in my prior Villages home and found the rates to also be lower so I was happy then and I'm happy now with the overall electric rates here in FL.
Property taxes in NY are about 3X here in TV so all things are relative to what you may be used to paying but I find the cost of living in TV to be reasonable (especially for what you get).

How do you know? The reality is that the snowbirds have to run their air conditioners when they are gone. Probably the internet too. Nobody is subsidizing anyone else, at least when it comes to residential service. We pay around 11 cents for the first 1000 KwH and around 13 cents for anything above 1000 KwH. The average base cost in the US and Florida is much lower than our $1.15 a day, however the cost per KwH is not unreasonable.

I was referring specifically to the daily fixed charge. You are correct that there is some usage in the summer, but it is nowhere near what someone running the A/C all day uses. We keep the thermostat set at 80 when gone with the dehumidifier doing the bulk of the work. Fridge and router use some juice, but since the doors are never opened, less power to maintain the temp.

You always have the option of having the power disconnected while you are away and saving the daily charge. But you won’t want that, you want electricity available while you are gone. Perfectly reasonable, just as it is reasonable for the electric company to charge the daily rate for providing you access to that electricity.

Pretty evident that classes on utility bills and how "fixed" costs are developed is needed.

here's the legal document from SECO about their "rate tariff", which is the legal term for the electrical rate structure

https://secoenergy.com/wp-content/up...ff_Current.pdf

There are different fixed charges for different customer types. . .

…. And the comment “we pay more back home” is exactly why rates and services keep going up!!! Mr Morse originally wanted people to be able to live on SS. Now you better have 2 pensions or have owned a profitable business!! Just sayn

Milton cost a local utility 2 Billion with a B. Yes, we will all pay some or all of that. Anything the Morse family can do with Mother Nature, LOL

The Gulf of Mexico has been angry lately! since 2017: All 10 major hurricanes that have made landfall in the U.S. struck communities along the gulf — including six in Florida.

There has been alot of electrical grid rebuilding and alot of property damage, such that electrical / insurance rates have to go up until the trend appears to break. . Sucks to be an apex predator at the mercy of Mother Nature.

You are exactly correct.