There are too many variables to really get a fair comparison.
That being said, my electric bills with a 60 gallon display and T5s was consistently $120/month in non-summer months. Now that my wife is home with the baby all day, it is now $175/month. This is a 1200 sq.ft. house.
As far as electric bills go and the various charges on there, I assure whoever said so, that they are not "bullcrap."
The bills are broken down between delivery charges and supply charges.
The distribution charge consists of the entire infrastructure of the grid, not the cost of generating electricity. This consists the poles, wires, transmission stations, trucks, lineworkers, etc. They also often include surcharges for energy efficiency programs that the state mandates. In other words, those little rebates on new appliances paid by utilities are actually paid by a fund from customer bills.
So if you think distribution charges are unfair - just disconnect from the grid.
Supply charges are the cost for generating electricity that you use. This covers the cost of the generating facilities only. It does not cover anything connected to that generating station that is required to get electricity to your house, i.e. everything I just mentioned above.
The charges are separated because while most people think of their utility as National Grid or Eversource, usually those companies are only providing transmission and distribution. Sometimes they own generation assets, and they usually buy a lot of electricity from other operators. This is what the whole Northern Pass line is all about...they want to bring electricity generated by Canadian Hydro Facilities (dams) over those wires to states in New England.
Since utilities are monopolies, everything they do and what they charge is regulated by state electric commissions and FERC. Utilities cannot set the rates in your electric bills - the government does.
They spend billions of dollars on infrastructure every year, and that has to be paid for.
