Oct. 11--ALBANY -- Debra Vincent is steaming mad about her most recent National Grid bill.

The Latham resident is furious because she used $46.41 worth of electricity during the month of August -- but National Grid charged her $84.37 to deliver the power to her home, nearly double the cost of the actual electrons.

"You pay 200 percent of your usage. Come on!" Vincent said. "A lot of people don't even look at their bill. They should look at their bill and start complaining -- it matters."

Vincent is not alone in her frustration over her utility bill. With the wholesale price of electricity falling because of the recession, National Grid customers are noticing that their delivery costs -- the amount that National Grid charges customers to provide homes and businesses with power -- are more than the cost of the power itself.

The anger is also caused by a utility bill that is unclear to most people because of confusing charges, taxes and fees that can change from month to month and differ depending on where you live.

Taxes and government fees account for about 6 percent of a typical gas and electric bill, and in school districts that collect sales taxes on utility bills, the percentage can be even higher.

To be fair, National Grid has done a lot to try to simplify its bills over the past several years. And the London-based utility doesn't have any control over the numerous taxes levied by the state and local municipalities.

"We want to give as much information as possible to the customer and make it as simple as possible," said National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella. "But that doesn't always work together as well as possible. We want to see it as simple as possible, and our customers want to know what makes up the bill."

The latest tax to be added to the bill is the so-called incremental state assessment that Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature used this year to help bridge the state budget gap. This tax is officially known as the 18-a assessment, and it is designed to fund the state Public Service Commission. The tax -- originally a levy of one-third of one percent of the utility's revenues -- used to be included in National Grid's delivery charges.

But the 18-a assessment was increased to 2 percent of the utility's revenues, and now it's broken out as its own line item on National Grid bills.

On a $150 bill, this tax amounts to about $3 -- and that's just one of many taxes that consumers and businesses have to deal with. There can be as many as eight different line items on the combined National Grid gas and electric bill showing state and municipal tax charges.